Exploring Computational Thinking in a Secondary Setting

2019

As computational devices have become ingrained in modern society, a basic understanding of these, and the Computer Science theories they operate on is now a critical component in understanding our world. Because of this, the subjects Computer Science, programming, and Computational Thinking are becoming a part of school curricula around the world. However, effective integration and teaching of these topics at a pre-tertiary level faces many challenges, as these have not traditionally been taught in school, in the majority of countries. Additionally, many of the claims surrounding how and why these subjects, particularly Computational Thinking, should be taught have not been extensively investigated. The work reported on in this thesis aims to address several of these challenges, with a specific focus on primary school curriculum. The goals of this thesis are to 1) establish if Computer Science (CS) and Computational Thinking (CT) can be taught effectively in a typical primary school...

Procedia Manufacturing, 2020

One of the most important challenges of education is the formation of proper computational thinking (CT). In line with K-12 Computer Science Framework (k12cs.org) the term of CT refers to the "thought processes involved in expressing solutions as computational steps or algorithms that can be carried out by a computer". CT is a problem solving process essential to the development of computer applications, but it is also used in supporting problem solving across many other disciplines. It has gained some grounds in secondary education in the last few years and there are ongoing efforts to introduce it to elementary education as well. Taking into consideration that algorithms play a central role in computational thinking, the aim of our research was to assess the skills of secondary school students and university students in this area, CT, that they faced an apparently computer science-free task but with obvious algorithmic background. According to the aims of our research there were two target populations: secondary school students and university students. In order to measure the level of computational thinking we elaborated a worksheet (test with problems to be solved). The tasks contained algorithms that can be applied on computer, and they did not need any IT knowledge, only structured and logical thinking. The results provide a reliable guide regarding those cognitive skills, among secondary school-children and university students, which need improvement, so transfer of knowledge could work in practical, lifelike situations.

International Journal of Serious Games, 2019

The introduction of Computational Thinking (CT) in Italian compulsory schools is on the way, and there is a general need for new methodologies to support teachers’ work. A one-year long learning path supporting the development of CT skills in primary school students through game making activities was defined and tested in a case study with one grade 5 class. All students in the class were actively involved regardless of their personal interest, their participation was generally high, their skills increased along the project, and the main objectives were reached. Nevertheless, results suggest that a longer time span is needed for students to master deeply the new concepts and tools, class organization proved to be crucial and this confirms the need for an adequate teachers’ training before introducing CT in classroom activities. Students demonstrated to be on the right path to approach CT through game making, but they still need to be guided in taking the player’s perspective and mak...

International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools, 2018

Computational Thinking has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert (Papert, 1980) is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but Jeanette Wing (Wing, 2006) popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international com-munity's attention. Since then, increased focus and attention have been placed on Computational Thinking and more and more research has been conducted on Computational Thinking in education. The first aim of this systematic literary review is to give second-level educators who are looking to include Computational Thinking into their schools and classrooms ideas and options when looking at how to achieve this. The hope is also to present reasons as to why it is important to teach Computational Thinking, along with potential issues. Secondly, we aim to give education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. Thirdly, this is the first stage in a longer-term project to develop a Computational Thinking based curriculum which is taught using Computer Science. It is hoped that the problems, opportunities and ideas that are presented here will underpin this curriculum. Overall it was found in this review that, although there is a lot of work currently being done around the world in many different educational contexts, the work relating to Computational Thinking is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of Computational Thinking lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing Computational Thinking into curriculum in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach Computational Thinking, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is becoming more common. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach Computational Thinking as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate Computational Thinking into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more.

World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues

The study was carried out from 2018 to 2020 with the challenge-how to assess the level of computational thinking. The research design is mixed since the disclosure of mutual influence of the components of the chain 'learning programming-computational thinking-evaluating computational thinking' requires the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The conceptualisation of the 'computational thinking' idea is based on the premise of the impact of abstract thinking and computers on human thinking evolution. The structural interpretation of 'computational thinking', consisting of nine components, reflects the presence of a semantic link between teaching programming and the development of abstract computational thinking. Four levels (phenomenological, analytic-synthetic, set-prognostic and axiomatic) of computational thinking have been identified for each of these nine components. The study involved 102 elementary school students who are learning programming in Scratch. The guiding questions and problems we have developed for elementary school students are designed following the characteristics of the four levels of computational thinking. The results of the study showed that the ratio of 'structural components' to different levels of computational thinking, with the corresponding characteristics, allows one to determine the degree of its development or its individual components.

Since its introduction by Papert[1] and its application to the educational field by Wing[2], computational thinking has been experiencing a growing development in recent years in all levels of compulsory education and also in the informal field. Undoubtedly, computational thinking helps individuals to better cope with learning challenges and even with everyday life challenges themselves; in addition, it is motivating for young people, and because of that, it is frequently offered as a common activity outside school or inside the curriculum. In Catalonia, different governmental initiatives consider the inclusion of programming and robotics in the ordinary classroom as a result of that; in fact, it is considered positive to generalize the computational thinking in the compulsory education system, because of its many possibilities and its many potentialities. However, nowadays the Faculties of Education do not form teachers prepared to teach computational thinking to their future students, which may run the risk of not having professionals prepared enough in this regard. Because of this, the PECOFIM project is investigating the most effective ways to train future teachers in computational thinking. As a first part of this project, a descriptive analysis of the initial level of knowledge and expectations on computational thinking as a training strategy for the pre-service teachers of the two participating universities has been carried out, and preliminary data offer us an interesting view on the status quo in this regard. Although the informants generally offer a precise definition of computational thinking, the preconception we detect in them is always closely linked to the experiences they have had in this respect and, therefore, it is related to robotics or programming, in an often quite restrictive vision. Students show a high level of expectations about the educational possibilities of computational thinking in Primary Education, although their expectations are excessively linked to the instrumental domains related to programming itself and not to its incidence in the development of the other literacies and abilities. In addition, they are able to recognize in general terms which are the most relevant elements of the didactic strategies that allow students to develop it. However, even those who have been trained in robotics feel unprepared to act as teachers in computational thinking. As a last positive, it is important to emphasize that in any case the interest of the pre-service teachers to train in computational thinking is high. Several studies and reports have pointed out that Computational Thinking improves some very specific problem solving skills, such as the ability to think logically. On their own, Brennan and Resnick [3] point out three dimensions of Computational Thinking, which are computational concepts (concepts that designers use when programming, such as sequences, events, loops, parallelism, etc.), computational practices (that designers develop when they program, such as incremental and iterative development, trial and error, abstraction, modularization, etc.) and finally computational perspectives (that is, perspectives that designers form about their surroundings and about themselves, such as learning to express, connecting, questioning, etc.). As a natural consequence of this, there are many initiatives that attempt to exploit all these potentialities within the educational field. In fact, Computational Thinking allows to improve the fun and the motivation when exploring the learning of very diverse concepts, not only mathematical [4]. Hence it is useful for the general population, not only for computer scientists [2] and so it is considered a basic and transversal literacy for citizenship [5].

Education and Information Technologies, 2015

Computational Thinking is considered a universal competence, which should be added to every child's analytical ability as a vital ingredient of their school learning. In this article we further elaborate on what Computational Thinking is and present examples of what needs to be taught and how. First we position Computational Thinking in Papert's work with LOGO. We then discuss challenges in defining Computational Thinking and discuss the core and peripheral aspects of a definition. After that we offer examples of how Computational Thinking can be addressed in both formal and informal educational settings. In the conclusion and discussion section an agenda for research and practice is presented.

Several countries have usually adopted several priorities for developing ICT competences from kindergarten to secondary education. Most of them are focused on the development of key competences and/or coding skills. Although coding may be very attractive for young students and a very good practice or experience, it could be more interesting to develop students' logical thinking skills and problem-solving skills throughout programming approaches or computational thinking. This is a very exciting challenge with lots of possibilities regarding coding, robots, mobiles devices, Arduino-based application, game-based learning and so on. Thus it is very important discuss the experiences that are being developed worldwide in specialized for a with researchers that are working on this field, such as for example European Union TACCLE 3-Coding project. This track is devoted to identify, share and valorize best practices and experiences (including technological and methodological issues) that focused on the development of computational thinking and related skills in any level of pre-university education.

Educational Dimension

The importance of modern schools in developing students’ problem-solving skills, including through digital tools, is described in the article, which includes the development of basic coding skills and digital literacy, as well as the ability to solve problems and make decisions based on planning and analysis of situations. Computational thinking (CT) is built on the foundation of these abilities. The authors contend that the employment of specialized digital tools promotes the development of computational thinking and that purposeful creation of computational thinking improves teachers’ and students’ digital competence. The concept of CT, as well as existing definitions and components, are examined in this article. A list of courses from various countries’ curriculum on which CT is studied in primary school is provided. The importance of CT as a fundamental talent for everyone is underlined, and it should be developed through the integration of several disciplines to solve problems....