Introducing Computational Thinking in K-12 Education: Historical, Epistemological, Pedagogical, Cognitive, and Affective Aspects

Introduction of scientific and cultural aspects of Computer Science (CS) (called "Computational Thinking" - CT) in K-12 education is fundamental. We focus on three crucial areas. 1. Historical, philosophical, and pedagogical aspects. What are the big ideas of CS we must teach? What are the historical and pedagogical contexts in which CT emerged, and why are relevant? What is the relationship between learning theories (e.g., constructivism) and teaching approaches (e.g., plugged and unplugged)? 2. Cognitive aspects. What is the sentiment of generalist teachers not trained to teach CS? What misconceptions do they hold about concepts like CT and "coding"? 3. Affective and motivational aspects. What is the impact of personal beliefs about intelligence (mindset) and about CS ability? What the role of teaching approaches? This research has been conducted both through historical and philosophical argumentation, and through quantitative and qualitative studies (both on nationwide samples and small significant ones), in particular through the lens of (often exaggerated) claims about transfer from CS to other skills. Four important claims are substantiated. 1. CS should be introduced in K-12 as a tool to understand and act in our digital world, and to use the power of computation for meaningful learning. CT is the conceptual sediment of that learning. We designed a curriculum proposal in this direction. 2. The expressions CT (useful to distantiate from digital literacy) and "coding" can cause misconceptions among teachers, who focus mainly on transfer to general thinking skills. Both disciplinary and pedagogical teacher training is hence needed. 3. Some plugged and unplugged teaching tools have intrinsic constructivist characteristics that can facilitate CS learning, as shown with proposed activities. 4. Growth mindset is not automatically fostered by CS, while not studying CS can foster fixed beliefs. Growth mindset can be fostered by creative computing, leveraging on its constructivist aspects

Playing, Constructionism, and Music in Early-Stage Software Engineering Education

[EN] Understanding that design involves trade-offs, thinking at multiple levels of abstraction, and considering the cohesion and coupling between sub-components of a larger whole is an important part of software (and other) engineering. It can be challenging to convey such abstract design concepts to novice engineers, especially for materials that are themselves abstract (e.g. software). Such challenges are compounded when teaching at the secondary school stage where students have limited experience of large-scale design problems that motivate the need for abstraction at all. In this paper, we describe a method for introducing these concepts to secondary school students using LEGO® and Raspberry Pi computers, asking them to build musical instruments as an entertaining way of motivating engagement with learning about design through play. The method has been successfully piloted in a series of three classroom sessions and key observations and experiences of using the method are presented.This project received no external funding but was funded by the UCL Department of Computer Science Strategic Research FundGold, NE.; Purves, R.; Himonides, E. (2022). Playing, Constructionism, and Music in Early-Stage Software Engineering Education. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences. 9(1):14-38. https://doi.org/10.4995/muse.2022.1645314389

The Extraction of Knowledge Factors of Teachers for Physical Computing Education

In informatics, physical computing focuses on interactions to realize the real world as a computing system. From 2018, how to teach the physical computing in informatics as a mandatory subject is important. The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems in the physical computing education recognized by secondary school informatics teachers and to provide implications for effective programming education. First, we extracted related keywords of physical computing in the 2015 revised informatics curriculum and science curriculum. Second, extracted keywords are classified into hardware and programming. Third, we developed a questionnaire item suitable for classification keywords. Finally, web surveys were conducted and analyzed for in-service and pre-service secondary school informatics teachers. As a result of the research, it was confirmed that the informatics teachers recognized that physical computing education was helpful for programming education. However, a large proportion of the member's lack of training time and receive appropriate education and training programs, hardware, reduced the level of knowledge about the physical computing element content

Machinima interventions: innovative approaches to immersive virtual world curriculum integration

The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing that digital media works best when simply developed for deployment within a blended curriculum to inform learning activity, and where the media are specifically designed to set challenges, seed ideas, or illustrate problems. Machinima, digital films created in IVWs, or digital games offer a rich mechanism for delivering such interventions. Scenes are storyboarded, constructed, shot and edited using techniques similar to professional film production, drawing upon a cast of virtual world avatars controlled through a human–computer interface, rather than showing real‐life actors. The approach enables academics or students to make films using screen capture software and desktop editing tools. In student‐generated production models the learning value may be found in the production process itself. This paper discusses six case studies and several themes from research on ideas for educational machinima including: access to production; creativity in teaching and learning; media intervention methodology; production models; reusability; visualisation and simulation

Constructing the Learning Environment in Classroom Convivial Computer Tools for Higher Education

New education technologies are coming on stream, enabling connectivity among teachers, facilitators and students. Students have to learn how to access Managed Learning Environments each time they move to different course websites. These barriers can hinder the real understanding of the subject matter for a course. This research calls for a rethink of pedagogical process towards blending together commonly used emerging social software and legacy educational tools rather than developing new tools for the classroom. Indeed, a learning tool should fit well to the learning model and philosophy of that course. Three case studies were conducted through different courses in the Digital Media master program and Informatik program at the University of Bremen, Germany. Students worked in small groups to design digital media and learning portal that should make learning more interesting and meaningful for them. At the end, this research proposes the concept of Constructing the Learning Environment in classroom and Convivial Computer Tools for higher education, where students and teachers, via dialogues in the class, can negotiate to deploy a set of selected tools and functions to match their learning needs. It is also to show that a tool with too many functions can cause confusion, rather than enhance effectiveness. To empower collaborative, interactive and personal learning, this work proposes the blended learning and classroom procedures for a convivial selection of educational tools. At the end, our innovative attempt is to bring constructionist learning into the higher education context

Failure Artifact Scenarios to Understand High School Students' Growth in Troubleshooting Physical Computing Projects

Debugging physical computing projects provides a rich context to understand cross-disciplinary problem solving that integrates multiple domains of computing and engineering. Yet understanding and assessing students' learning of debugging remains a challenge, particularly in understudied areas such as physical computing, since finding and fixing hardware and software bugs is a deeply contextual practice. In this paper we draw on the rich history of clinical interviews to develop and pilot "failure artifact scenarios" in order to study changes in students' approaches to debugging and troubleshooting electronic textiles (e-textiles). We applied this clinical interview protocol before and after an eight-week-long e-textiles unit. We analyzed pre/post clinical interviews from 18 students at four different schools. The analysis revealed that students improved in identifying bugs with greater specificity, and across domains, and in considering multiple causes for bugs. We discuss implications for developing tools to assess students' debugging abilities through contextualized debugging scenarios in physical computing

Informatinio mąstymo ugdymo konstrukcionistinėje aplinkoje projektavimo moksliniai tyrimai: pragmatistinė perspektyva

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian] The article examines the modern computer-based educational environment and the requirements of the possible cognitive interface that enables the learner’s cognitive grounding by incorporating abductive reasoning into the educational process. Although the main emphasis is on cognitive and physiological aspects, the practical tools for enabling computational thinking in a modern constructionist educational environment are discussed. The presented analytical material and developed solutions are aimed at education with computers. However, the proposed solutions can be generalized in order to create a computer-free educational environment. The generalized paradigm here is pragmatism, considered as a philosophical assumption. By designing and creating a pragmatist educational environment, a common way of organizing computational thinking that enables constructionist educational solutions can be found.[straipsnis ir santrauka anglų kalba, santrauka lietuvių kalba] Straipsnyje nagrinėjama šiuolaikinė kompiuterinėmis technologijomis grįsta edukacinė aplinka. Aptariami kognityvinės sąsajos, skirtos besimokančiojo įgyjamoms žinioms sieti su realaus pasaulio objektais ar reiškiniais, reikalavimai. Šį susiejimą siūloma realizuoti į ugdymo procesą įtraukiant abdukcinius samprotavimus. Straipsnyje aptariamos praktinės priemonės informatiniam mąstymui ugdyti šiuolaikinėje konstrukcionistinėje aplinkoje, akcentuojant kognityvinius ir fiziologinius aspektus ir jungiant kelių paradigmų teorijas. Pateikta analitinė medžiaga ir siūlomi sprendimai skirti kompiuterinei ugdymo aplinkai, tačiau gali būti apibendrinti ir bendrajai ugdymo aplinkai be technologijų. Filosofine prielaida čia laikoma generalizuota pragmatizmo paradigma. Projektuojant ir kuriant pragmatistinę ugdymo aplinką, randamas informatinio mąstymo ugdymo naudojant konstrukcionistinius edukacinius sprendimus būdas

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