(Re)defining computing curricula by (re)defining computing

Isbell, Charles L.; Stein, Lynn Andrea; Cutler, Robb; Forbes, Jeffrey; Fraser, Linda; Impagliazzo, John; Proulx, Viera K.; Russ, Steve; Thomas, Richard; Xu, Yan

doi:10.1145/1709424.1709462

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This study assumes, in line with Isbell and colleagues [5], that computational thinking skills are a requirement of 21 st century society and that these skills must be taught. This research contributes to the body of knowledge that may be used to inform the issue of effective teaching strategies for both programming and computational thinking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Promoting computational thinking with programming

Selby

2012

Proceedings of the 7th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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The term computational thinking has received some discussion in the field of computer science education research. The term is defined as the concept of thinking about problems in a way that can be implemented in a computing device. Of course, after having thought about a problem using computational thinking skills, the next step should be to use programming skills to implement the solution. This work in progress is exploring ways in which programming can be employed as a tool to teach computational thinking and problem solving. Data is collected from teachers, academics, and professionals from various industries. They are purposively selected because of their knowledge of or interest in the topics of problem solving, computational thinking, and the teaching of programming. This data is analyzed within the paradigm of the grounded theory approach. The results of an initial analysis imply an ordering of complexity associated with computational thinking skills, imply connections between computational thinking skills and programming activities, and imply a relationship between computational thinking skills and other taxonomies of learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Promoting computational thinking with programming

Selby

2012

Proceedings of the 7th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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“…It it possible to identify some convergence in the definitions of CT presented by Lee et al [16], Barr and Stephenson [18] and Isbell et al [22]. The three works indicate that applying CT may be closely related to the abstraction of a process to allow its automation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Isbell et al [22] consolidated the results of a debate about the nature of Computing in order to guide the definition of curricula for undergraduate courses. An alternative view on Computational Thinking arises from this debate: for the authors, the concept of Computing is centered on the production of representative models of a particular domain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Computational Thinking in initial series An analysis of the confluence among mathematics and Computer Sciences in elementary education and its implications for higher education

Barcelos

Silveira

2012

2012 XXXVIII Conferencia Latinoamericana en Informatica (CLEI)

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The pervasiveness of computer devices in everyday situations poses a fundamental question about Computer Sciences as being part of those known as basic sciences. However, it would be more beneficial not to consider computation only as a technique, but instead as a way of reasoning and problem solving. Under this perspective, there are inherent relationships among the knowledge, skills and attitudes that emanate from this field and those ones commonly related to Math. This paper discusses the relationship between the so-named Computational Thinking and the foundations of Math Education, based on a literature review. Three groups of skills that can be jointly developed by both areas are identified and some challenges and implications for education inComputer Sciences are discussed.

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“…We weave the themes throughout the class. Similarly, Isbell et al [5] combine mathematics, computation, and experiments to solve engineering problems.…”

Section: Comparison To Other Teaching Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introductory programming meets the real world

Anderson

Ernst

Ordóñez

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Too many students in introductory programming classes fail to understand the significance and utility of the concepts being taught. Their low motivation impacts their learning. One contributing factor is pedagogy that emphasizes computing for its own sake and assignments that are abstract, such as computing the factorial function.Many educators have improved on such traditional approaches by teaching concepts in contexts that students find more relevant, such as games, robots, and media. Now, it is time to take the next step.In this special session, participants will develop and discuss ways to teach introductory programming by means of real-world data analysis problems from science, engineering, business, and the humanities. Students can be motivated to learn programming in order to analyze DNA, predict the outcome of elections, detect fraudulent data, suggest friends in a social network, determine the authorship of texts, and more (see Section 3.4 for more examples). The approach is more than just a collection of "nifty assignments": rather, it affects the choice of topics and pedagogy, all of which together lead to greater student satisfaction.The approach has been successfully used at 4 colleges and universities. The classes were effective for both CS and non-CS majors. Neither the computing material nor the problems need to be "dumbed down". At the end of the term students were amazed and delighted at the real data analysis that they could perform. They were excited about applying computation in their work and about learning more.The special session contains a mix of activities, including comparative analysis of introductory classes; group discussion of curriculum design; a mini-panel discussing how the approach has worked in practice; and brainstorming about example assignments and curriculum revision.

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(Re)defining computing curricula by (re)defining computing

Cited by 31 publications

References 14 publications

Promoting computational thinking with programming

Promoting computational thinking with programming

Teaching Computational Thinking in initial series An analysis of the confluence among mathematics and Computer Sciences in elementary education and its implications for higher education

Introductory programming meets the real world

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