Teaching computational thinking in primary schools: Worldwide trends and teachers’ attitudes

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) as one of the 21st century skills enters early years education. This paper aims to study the worldwide tendencies of teaching CT through computing in primary education and primary school teachers? understanding of CT. A survey of 52 countries has been performed and complemented by a qualitative study of 15 countries. In order to identify teachers? understanding-level of CT and its integration approach in the class activities, a case study of 110 in-service teachers from 6 countries has been performed. The implications of the research results may be useful for primary school educators, educational initiatives, government authorities, policy makers, e-learning system and content developers dealing with support for teachers aiming to improve their CT professional development qualification.

Key factors influencing teachers’ motivation to transfer technology-enabled educational innovation

“…The content of technological creativity innovation is tightly related to but not limited to the core parts of the integrative subject of Computing, or Informatics. Informatics as a subject in primary school is gaining a lot of attention worldwide, and curricula are being actively developed (Dagienė et al, 2022 ). In Lithuania, the Informatics curriculum for primary school is in its development stage, and at the moment of this paper writing, Informatics is not a mandatory primary school subject.…”

Rethinking determinants of primary school teachers’ technology acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Remote teaching is particularly challenging in the education of younger children, where real communication is essential and computer screen time is limited resulting in lower levels of digital competence among primary school teachers compared to higher education teachers [39] , [58] . In many European countries, digital literacy and informatics are still developing as compulsory subjects in primary education [18] .…”

Desenvolvimento do Pensamento Computacional de Estudantes da Educação Básica com MIT App Inventor

“…Segundo um relatório do World Economic Forum (2016), 65% das crianças que ingressam na Educação Básica hoje, ao concluir seus estudos, irão trabalhar em funções completamente novas, que ainda não existem. Neste contexto, para atender as atuais e futuras demandas do mercado, surgem diversos movimentos e iniciativas para implementação do ensino de informática nas escolas (COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN COMPUTING EDUCATION, 2017;DAGIENĖ et al, 2022;CASPERSEN et al, 2023;INFORMATICS FOR ALL, 2023;HOUR OF CODE, 2023;CODE.ORG, 2023;GOOGLE FOR EDUCATION, 2023;PROGRAMAÊ, 2023). Nesse sentido, a International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) tem proposto padrões para orientar professores, gestores educacionais e formuladores de políticas públicas no desenho e implementação de currículos para potencializar o use adequado das TD na prática pedagógica (CROMPTON e SYKORA, 2021;ISTE, 2023) com ênfase no desenvolvimento do Pensamento Computacional (PC) dos estudantes, visando desenvolver habilidades essenciais do século XXI (CASPERSEN et al, 2019;OECD, 2020), e.g., criatividade, pensamento crítico, raciocínio lógico e resolução de problemas.…”