Exploring Teachers’ Perspectives and Instructional Strategies in Promoting Students’ Computational Thinking Development

• In Event: An Imaginary of Reflective Practice

Abstract

This study investigated effective instructional strategies and pedagogical perspectives to promote computational thinking skills (CT) for elementary school students. An analysis of students’ CT scores after a year of the computer science curriculum revealed the teachers’ significant influence on CT outcomes. Subsequently, the study examined the instructional strategies and pedagogical perspectives employed by the teacher whose students demonstrated higher CT scores. The teacher viewed CT as a way of connecting with others and nurtured the testing and debugging process. The teacher introduced CT concepts by connecting them to real-life situations and other subjects and encouraged students to help each other. The teacher’s pedagogical perspectives of CT transferred to the instructional strategies to teach CT.

Authors

• Clare Baek, University of California - Irvine

• Leiny Yesenia Garcia, Duke University

• Dana Saito-Stehberger, University of California - Irvine

• Adam Nam, University of California - Irvine

• Mark Warschauer, University of California - Irvine