The Code-Centric Nature of Computational Thinking Education: A Review of Trends and Issues in Computational Thinking Education Research

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) is being recognized as a critical component of student success in the digital era. Many contend that integrating CT into core curricula is the surest method for providing all students with access to CT. However, the CT community lacks an agreed-upon conceptualization of CT that would facilitate this integration, and little effort has been made to critically analyze and synthesize research on CT/content integration (CTCI). Conflicting CT conceptualizations and little understanding of evidence-based strategies for CTCI could result in significant barriers to increasing students’ access to CT. To address these concerns, we analyzed 80 studies on CT education, focusing on both the CT conceptualizations guiding current CT education research and evidence-based strategies for CTCI. Our review highlights the code-centric nature of CT education and reveals significant gaps in our understanding of CTCI and CT professional development for teachers. Based on these findings, we propose an approach to operationalizing CT that promotes students’ participation in CT, present promising methods for infusing content with CT, and discuss future directions for CT education research.

Integrating computational thinking into a longitudinal data analysis course for public health students

“…However, as Czerkawski & Lyman [10] noted, incorporation of CT in higher education faced higher hurdles than in K-12 education, because at college levels the use of CT in teaching and learning is highly dependent on the subject matter content. Integration of CT into curriculum content has been identified as an effective, synergistic approach to deepening students' understanding of curriculum content, as well as to sharpening their CT skills [22]. The present work, along with previous works [47][48][49], exemplifies this idea in the context of biostatistics education of public health students.…”

Review on the teaching of programming and computational thinking in the world

“…In the code-centered review conducted by Kite et al (2021), they highlight the importance of computational programming for transitioning to learning computational thinking and point out that they recognize the historical relationship of computational thinking with computer science. In the review, Kite et al (2021) point out that there are significant gaps in the conceptualization of computational thinking, highlighting the teaching of computational thinking and the professional development of teachers who will be in charge of teaching computational thinking, which gives rise to the idea on which new research can be based, highlighting the search for codecentered skills and the search for skills from interdisciplinary practices. It is highlighted that of the 80 articles reviewed by Kité et al 49% of the published research focused on code, highlighting specific issues of computational programming, such as algorithms, abstraction, modularization, debugging, parallelization, loops, and conditionals (Kite et al, 2021).…”

Jogo de RPG para o Desenvolvimento de Habilidades do Pensamento Computacional no Ensino Fundamental: Jogo Digital e Formação de Professores

“…Em Kite, Park, & Wiebe (2021) foi feito um estudo para identificar tendências em trabalhos empíricos sobre PC voltados a crianças. Entre os 80 artigos analisados, surgiram diferentes categorias levando em conta diferentes características.…”