Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review

Computational Thinking (CT) has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but since Wing popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention, more and more research has been conducted on CT in education. The aim of this systematic literary review is to give educators and education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. 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 CT is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of CT lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing CT into curriculums in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach CT, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is improving. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach CT as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate CT into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more. The need for more detailed lesson plans and curriculum structure however, is something that could be of benefit to teachers

A review into the factors affecting declines in undergraduate Computer Science enrolments and approaches for solving this problem

There has been a noticeable drop in enrolments in Computer Science (CS) courses and interest in CS careers in recent years while demand for CS skills is increasing dramatically. Not only are such skills useful for CS jobs but for all forms of business and to some extent personal lives as Information Technology (IT) is becoming ubiquitous and essential for most aspects of modern life. Therefore it is essential to address this lack of interest and skills to not only fill the demand for CS employees but to provide students with the CS skills they need for modern life especially for improving their employability and skills for further study. This report looks at possible reasons for the lack of interest in CS and different approaches used to enhance CS education and improve the appeal of CS

Contemporary developments in teaching and learning introductory programming: Towards a research proposal

The teaching and learning of introductory programming in tertiary institutions is problematic. Failure rates are high and the inability of students to complete small programming tasks at the completion of introductory units is not unusual. The literature on teaching programming contains many examples of changes in teaching strategies and curricula that have been implemented in an effort to reduce failure rates. This paper analyses contemporary research into the area, and summarises developments in the teaching of introductory programming. It also focuses on areas for future research which will potentially lead to improvements in both the teaching and learning of introductory programming. A graphical representation of the issues from the literature that are covered in the document is provided in the introduction

Computational thinking and online learning: A systematic literature review

This paper introduces research concerned with investigating how Computational Thinking and online learning can be successfully married to help empower secondary teachers to teach this subject. To aid this research, a systematic literature review was undertaken to investigate what is currently known in the academic literature on where Computational Thinking and online learning intersect. This paper presents the findings of this systematic literature review. It outlines the methodology used and presents the current data available in the literature on how Computational Thinking is taught online. Using a systematic process eight hundred articles were initially identified and then subsequently narrowed down to forty papers. These papers were analysed to answer the following two questions: 1. What are the current pedagogical approaches to teaching Computational Thinking online? 2. What were the categories of online learning observed in the teaching of Computational Thinking? Our findings show that a wide range of pedagogical approaches are used to teach Computational Thinking online, with the constructivist theory of learning being the most popular. The tools used to teach Computational Thinking were also varied, video game design, playing video games, competitions, and unplugged activities, to name a few. A significant finding was the dependency between the tool used and the definition of the term Computational Thinking. Computational Thinking lacks consensus on a definition, and thus the definition stated in the literature changed depending on the tool. By considering a significant body of research up to the present, our findings contribute to teachers, researchers and policy makers understanding of how computational thinking may be taught online at second level

Teaching Computational Thinking: are we considering students' socio-cultural context?

INTRODUCTION: Research to promote Computational Thinking (CT) has become frequent and carried out with the most different characteristics. Educational researchers argue that learning research needs to consider aspects of students' sociocultural context, regardless of what tools are used and how content is worked. However, it is not known if, and to what extent, these aspects are being considered in research to promote CT. OBJECTIVE: This research investigates whether the literature on initiatives to teach CT is recognizing and exploring aspects of students' sociocultural context and, mainly, how this is occurring. METHOD:A systematic review of the literature covering a decade (2007-2017) of articles published in the main vehicles of Computer Science in Education and Computer Science, considering the national and international scenario. RESULTS: The data indicate the students' sociocultural context is not being considered in the activities, although there is evidence that the scenario may be beginning to change. CONCLUSION: The results show that there is a growing concern and an evident effort by researchers to bring relevant elements of students' lives into the conducted practices. However, although it is possible to identify aspects of students' sociocultural context being considered by the mapped researches, it is still necessary to advance in terms of the rigor of the characterization of these aspects and the theoretical basis of the research

Enhancing the learning of programming using Scratch: a recommender-systems-based approach in non WEIRD communities

In today’s world, there is a growing need for professionals with computer skills in general, and programming in particular. This is so, both in WEIRD contexts and in contexts that are not. WEIRD is an acronym from English (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic Societies) and is used to refer to certain sectors of societies that are ”Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. The Ecuadorian State makes a high investment in the training of engineering career professionals offered by public universities. In Ecuador, these careers are highly demanded. However, a high student dropout is verified because of basic courses such as Fundamentals of programming in the first levels, with the consequent deficiencies in the performance of the careers. Additionally, the low qualification of students in computer skills indicates that they have not developed their computational thinking skills. In general terms, this situation contributes to the loss of competitiveness of non-WEIRD countries. For this reason, a pedagogical tool was introduced in teaching that allowed motivating programming learning, reducing dropout and improving academic performance in introductory programming courses at the university level. We present empirical evidence of the positive impact of Scratch on the Fundamentals of Programming courses. The use of this pedagogical tool allowed students to develop the concepts of programming logic and the use of basic control structures. Students who used Scratch scored better, reduced the number of suspensions and dropouts, and students were encouraged to enjoy the subject. On the other hand, when developing the exercises with Scratch in combination with the CARAMBA recommendation system, students were motivated to autonomous learning. The use of CARAMBA showed a positive correlation with the chances of success in the course. Specifically, > 52% success, whose result is 8% higher than the use of Scratch alone (without recommendations) and 21% higher than traditional education (without Scratch). The Scratch + CARAMBA tools were scaled to a school environment in non-WEIR contexts for programming learning. The post-application evaluation of the instrument indicated increases in exam scores in all grades analyzed. It should be noted that there was an average increase of 32% in the afternoon sections compared to the morning sections. This work opens a line of future research by bringing a pedagogical tool to different educational environments. The results allow us to propose improvements in CARAMBA’s recommendations, especially regarding the variables of usability, interactivity, language and pedagogical aspects. CARAMBA functionality should incorporate educational data mining tools that allow learning models based on the profile of the students. Another aspect that we intend to address is the scalability of the system in order to adapt it to other study scenarios with more users and number of exercises.En el mundo actual, existe cada vez mayor necesidad de profesionales con conocimientos de computación en general, y programación en particular. Esto es así, tanto en contextos WEIRD como en contextos que no lo son. WEIRD es un acrónimo procedente del inglés (Western, Educated, Industri alized, Rich and Democratic Societies) y es utilizado para referirse a ciertos sectores de sociedades que son “occidentales, educadas, industrializadas, ricas y democráticas. El Estado ecuatoriano realiza una alta inversión en la formación de profesionales de carreras de ingeniería ofertadas por las universidades públicas. En el Ecuador estas carreras son altamente demandadas. Sin embargo, se verifica una alta deserción estudiantil a causa de cursos básicos como Fundamentos de programación en los primeros niveles, con las consecuentes deficiencias en el desempeño de las carreras. Adicionalmente, la baja calificación de los estudiantes en competencias de computación indica que no tengan desarrollo-ladas sus habilidades de pensamiento computacional. En términos generales, esta situación contribuye a la perdida de la competitividad de los países non WEIRD. Por esta razón se introdujo en la enseñanza una herramienta pedagógica que permitió motivar el aprendizaje de programación, disminuir la deserción´ y mejorar el rendimiento académico en los cursos introductorios de programación a nivel universitario. Presentamos evidencia empírica del impacto positivo de Catch en los cursos de Fundamentos de Programación. El uso de esta herramienta pedagógica permitió desarrollar en los estudiantes los conceptos de lógica de programación y el uso de estructuras básicas de control. Los estudiantes que es-aron Catch obtuvieron mejores notas, redujeron la cantidad de suspensos y de deserciones, y se alentaron a los estudiantes a disfrutar de la asignatura. Por otro lado, al desarrollar los ejercicios con Catch en combinación con el sistema de recomendaciones CARAMBA los estudiantes se vieron motivados al aprendizaje autónomo. El uso de CARAMBA mostro una correlación positiva con las posibilidades de éxito en el curso. Concretamente, ¿52% de éxito, cuyo resultado 8% superior al uso solo de Catch (sin recomendaciones) y 21% superior a la enseñanza tradicional (sin Catch). Las herramientas Scratch+CARAMBA fueron escaladas a un ambiente escolar en contextos non WEIR para el aprendizaje de programación. La evaluación posterior a la aplicación del instrumento indico incrementos en las notas de los exámenes en todos los grados analizados. Vale destacar, que hubo un incremento del promedio de las notas del 32% en las secciones de la tarde respecto a las secciones matutinas. Este trabajo abre una línea de investigación futura al llevar una herramienta pedagógica a diferentes entornos educativos. Se pretende plantear mejoras en las recomendaciones de CARAMBA, en especial respecto a las variables de usabilidad, interactividad, lenguaje y de aspectos pedagógicos. En la funcionalidad de CARAMBA se deben incorporar herramientas de minería de datos educacionales que permitan modelos de aprendizaje basados en el perfil de los estudiantes. Otro aspecto que pretendemos abordar es la escalabilidad del sistema a fin de adaptarlo a otros escenarios de estudio con mas usuarios cantidad de ejercicios

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research