Frameworks for Integration of Future-Oriented Computational Thinking in K-12 Schools

View Sample PDF

Author(s): Scott R. Garrigan (Lehigh University, USA)
Copyright: 2020
Pages: 15
Source title: Handbook of Research on Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in K-12 Education
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Jared Keengwe (University of North Dakota, USA)and Patrick Wachira (Cleveland State University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-1479-5.ch003

Keywords: Education / Educational Technologies / Information Science Reference / K-12 Education

Purchase

View Frameworks for Integration of Future-Oriented Computational Thinking in K-12 Schools on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

Computational thinking (CT) K-12 curricula and professional development should prepare students for their future, but historically, such curricula have limited success. This chapter offers historical analogies and ways that CT curricula may have a stronger and more lasting impact. Two frameworks are central to the chapter's arguments. The first recalls Seymour Papert's original description of CT as a pedagogy with computing playing a formative role in young children's thinking; the computer was a tool to think with (1980, 1996). This “thinking development” framework emphasized child-centered, creative problem solving to foster deep engagement and understanding. Current CT seems to include creativity only tangentially. The second framework encompasses emergent machine learning and data concepts that will become pervasive. This chapter, more prescriptive than empirical, suggests ways that CT and requisite professional development could be more future-focused and more successful. It could be titled “Seymour Papert meets Machine Learning.”

The IRMA Community

Research IRM

Frameworks for Integration of Future-Oriented Computational Thinking in K-12 Schools

Purchase

Abstract

Related Content

IRMA Sponsors