Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum

• In Event: Preparing Computationally Literate Teacher Educators: A Professional Development Approach

Abstract

Objective
Computational thinking (CT) represents a critical area of development in K-12 education and a “fundamental skill for everyone, not just computer scientists” (Wing, 2006). CT should not be treated as another add on, instead it must be, and often is, already embedded in skills being taught (CSTA & ISTE, 2011). Pre-service teachers (PSTs) should view CT as an essential cross-curricular initiative and a problem-solving skill to be developed and refined in all content areas (Bundy, 2007; CSTA & ISTE, 2011).
These universal characteristics for CT are observed when the ultimate goal is not to create computer scientists (Yadav et al., 2014) but instead to teach learners “how to think like an economist, a physicist, an artist, and to understand how to use computation to solve their problems, to create, and to discover new questions that can fruitfully be explored” (Hemmedinger, 2010, p.6).

Perspectives
This study brought a CT module into coursework to familiarize learners with the ubiquitous applications of CT that are possible across grade levels and content areas. It present an analysis of PST’s discussions and reflections as they participated in this module.
The progression of the CT module allowed learners opportunities to wear ‘student hats’ initially, followed by ‘teacher hats’. Early experiences were designed to immerse learners as their students would be, thus wearing a ‘student hat’. The ‘teacher hat’ exploration and discussion that followed allowed the PSTs to “be actively engaged in professional development that mirrors such experiences” that are desired for their future students (Klein & Riordan, 2011, p.36).

Methods
Nine graduate students participated as part of an educational psychology course within a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program. They participated in learning opportunities to experience CT concepts in real-world, non-academic settings, to introduce CT and its subcomponents of algorithms, decomposition, pattern recognition, and abstraction, and to investigate educational resources within their grade-levels and subject areas. These resources were shared and reflected upon through conversation.

Data sources
Pre and post-surveys were completed to gather information about awareness of and experiences with CT. Data was also gathered through discussions, reflections, and shared artifacts.

Results
Two themes emerged after immersion in CT experiences applying the student lens and the pedagogical exploration and reflection from the teacher perspective. The first was genuine surprise expressed by PSTs at the content-flexible nature of CT and the opportunities available for integrating CT across curricula. The second theme demonstrated a lingering concern around CT, though these beliefs were often associated with remaining naïve understandings and associations for CT primarily with computer science and coding. See Table 1 for quotes to exemplify each theme.

** Table 1 **

Scholarly Significance
Results demonstrate that even after an embedded CT module, for some PSTs, naïve initial ideas persisted. Yet with content-flexible immersion in CT learning activities, followed by pedagogically-driven exploration and reflection, expanding perspectives were demonstrated about the transdisciplinary connections. This speaks to the critical need to highlight cross-curricular connections through learning experiences for PSTs that are built around exploring personal teaching context opportunities.

Author

• Andrea Drewes, Rider University