Exploring Computational Thinking in a Secondary Setting

The core of the program of study in the new English National Curriculum in Computing for secondary education is on computational thinking. This requires pupils to analyse problems in computational terms, write computer programs to solve them and in so doing develop their own capacity to learn how to learn. Although the importance of teaching computational thinking skills from a young age is acknowledged, deciding which specific skills should be taught is still unclear. The ability to think abstractly and use symbols related to abstract concepts is an integral part of computational thinking and according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, is not usually triggered until the teen years to adulthood. So is there a benefit of teaching computational thinking from an early age? This paper explores some of the challenges in this area based on a literature review and presents some early findings from an empirical study in teaching computational thinking to 12-13 years old pupils.