Understanding Student Computational Thinking with Computational Modeling

Recently, the National Research Council's framework for next generation science standards highlighted "computational thinking" as one of its "fundamental practices". 9th Grade students taking a physics course that employed the Modeling Instruction curriculum were taught to construct computational models of physical systems. Student computational thinking was assessed using a proctored programming assignment, written essay, and a series of think-aloud interviews, where the students produced and discussed a computational model of a baseball in motion via a high-level programming environment (VPython). Roughly a third of the students in the study were successful in completing the programming assignment. Student success on this assessment was tied to how students synthesized their knowledge of physics and computation. On the essay and interview assessments, students displayed unique views of the relationship between force and motion; those who spoke of this relationship in causal (rather than observational) terms tended to have more success in the programming exercise.Comment: preprint to submit to PERC proceedings 201

Computational thinking

The aim of the research is to draw attention of the educational community to the phenomenon of computational thinking which actively discussed in the last decade in the foreign scientific and educational literature, to substantiate of its importance, practical utility and the right on affirmation in Russian education. Methods. The research is based on the analysis of foreign studies of the phenomenon of computational thinking and the ways of its formation in the process of education; on comparing the notion of «computational thinking» with related concepts used in the Russian scientific and pedagogical literature. Results. The concept «computational thinking» is analyzed from the point of view of intuitive understanding and scientific and applied aspects. It is shown as computational thinking has evolved in the process of development of computers hardware and software. The practice-oriented interpretation of computational thinking which dominant among educators is described along with some ways of its formation. It is shown that computational thinking is a metasubject result of general education as well as its tool. From the point of view of the author, purposeful development of computational thinking should be one of the tasks of the Russian education. Scientific novelty. The author gives a theoretical justification of the role of computational thinking schemes as metasubject results of learning. The dynamics of the development of this concept is described. This process is connected with the evolution of computer and information technologies as well as increase of number of the tasks for effective solutions of which computational thinking is required. Author substantiated the affirmation that including «computational thinking» in the set of pedagogical concepts which are used in the national education system fills an existing gap. Practical significance. New metasubject result of education associated with the formation of personal and professional qualities the persons living and working in the information society is formulatedЦель представленного в статье исследования – привлечь внимание педагогической общественности к феномену вычислительного мышления, активно обсуждаемому в последнее десятилетие в зарубежной научно-педагогической литературе, обосновать его теоретическую значимость, практическую полезность и право на институирование в отечественном образовании. Методы. Исследование базируется на анализе зарубежных исследований феномена вычислительного мышления и путей его формирования в процессе образования; на сопоставлении понятия «вычислительное мышление» с родственными понятиями, используемыми в российской научно-педагогической литературе. Результаты. Понятие «вычислительное мышление» проанализировано как с точки зрения его интуитивного понимания, так и в научно-прикладных, аспектах. Показано, как эволюционировало данное мышление в процессе развития технических и программных средств информатики. Описана практико-ориентированная интерпретация вычислительного мышления, доминирующая в среде работников образования, наряду с некоторыми приемами его формирования. Доказано, что этот вид мышления является как метапредметным результатом общего образования, так и его инструментом. С точки зрения автора, целенаправленное развитие вычислительного мышления должно стать одной из задач российского образования. Научная новизна. Теоретически обоснована значимость понятия «вычислительное мышление» как метапредметного результата обучения. Описана динамика развития этого понятия в процессе эволюции компьютерных и информационных технологий и расширения пространства задач, для эффективного решения которых необходимо вычислительное мышление. Обосновано утверждение о том, что перенос понятия «вычислительное мышление» в принятую в отечественном образовании систему педагогических понятий восполняет существующий в ней пробел. Практическая значимость. Выделен новый метапредметный результат образования, связанный с формированием личностных и профессиональных качеств человека, живущего и работающего в информационном обществ

Research questions and approaches for computational thinking curricula design

Teaching computational thinking (CT) is argued to be necessary but also admitted to be a very challenging task. The reasons for this, are: i) no general agreement on what computational thinking is; ii) no clear idea nor evidential support on how to teach CT in an effective way. Hence, there is a need to develop a common approach and a shared understanding of the scope of computational thinking and of effective means of teaching CT. Thus, the consequent ambition is to utilize the preliminary and further research outcomes on CT for the education of the prospective teachers of secondary, further and higher/adult education curricula

Teaching programming with computational and informational thinking

Computers are the dominant technology of the early 21st century: pretty well all aspects of economic, social and personal life are now unthinkable without them. In turn, computer hardware is controlled by software, that is, codes written in programming languages. Programming, the construction of software, is thus a fundamental activity, in which millions of people are engaged worldwide, and the teaching of programming is long established in international secondary and higher education. Yet, going on 70 years after the first computers were built, there is no well-established pedagogy for teaching programming. There has certainly been no shortage of approaches. However, these have often been driven by fashion, an enthusiastic amateurism or a wish to follow best industrial practice, which, while appropriate for mature professionals, is poorly suited to novice programmers. Much of the difficulty lies in the very close relationship between problem solving and programming. Once a problem is well characterised it is relatively straightforward to realise a solution in software. However, teaching problem solving is, if anything, less well understood than teaching programming. Problem solving seems to be a creative, holistic, dialectical, multi-dimensional, iterative process. While there are well established techniques for analysing problems, arbitrary problems cannot be solved by rote, by mechanically applying techniques in some prescribed linear order. Furthermore, historically, approaches to teaching programming have failed to account for this complexity in problem solving, focusing strongly on programming itself and, if at all, only partially and superficially exploring problem solving. Recently, an integrated approach to problem solving and programming called Computational Thinking (CT) (Wing, 2006) has gained considerable currency. CT has the enormous advantage over prior approaches of strongly emphasising problem solving and of making explicit core techniques. Nonetheless, there is still a tendency to view CT as prescriptive rather than creative, engendering scholastic arguments about the nature and status of CT techniques. Programming at heart is concerned with processing information but many accounts of CT emphasise processing over information rather than seeing then as intimately related. In this paper, while acknowledging and building on the strengths of CT, I argue that understanding the form and structure of information should be primary in any pedagogy of programming

Developing computational thinking in the classroom: a framework

Computational thinking sits at the heart of the new statutory programme of study for Computing: “A high quality computing education equips pupils to use computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the world” (Department for Education, 2013, p. 188). This document aims to support teachers to teach computational thinking. It describes a framework that helps explain what computational thinking is, describes pedagogic approaches for teaching it and gives ways to assess it. Pupil progression with the previous ICT curriculum was often demonstrated through ‘how’ (for example, a software usage skill) or ‘what’ the pupil produced (for example, a poster). This was partly due to the needs of the business world for office skills. Such use of precious curriculum time however has several weaknesses. Firstly, the country’s economy depends on technological innovation not just on use of technology. Secondly, the pace of technology and organisational change is fast in that the ICT skills learnt are out of date before a pupil leaves school. Thirdly, technology invades all aspects of our life and the typically taught office practice is only a small part of technology use today