Bridging Computational Thinking for Equity to Critical Pedagogy Through Freire (Poster 5)

• In Event: Formative Research and Pedagogical Approaches to Integrate Computational Thinking and Computer Science in a Residency

Abstract

Our teacher education program is rooted in equity and transformative education issues that address injustice. This often involves deep critical thinking. Critical thinking is often an internal metacognitive process. We engage in a description and practice that 1) describes processes that might facilitate critical thinking and 2) allows for opportunities to make these thinking processes visible. Computational thinking often involves decomposition, debugging, and abstraction, and in our program, it also involves using data to engage in thinking around critical issues. Our program defines computational thinking in the following way, "CT for Equity seeks to empower students to use CT in ways that explore, express, critique and create artifacts about the world around them. We share our Computational Thinking framework and how we engage our pre-service students in developing computational thinking practices for equity.
Further, CT for Equity through a Freirian lens can deepen engagement and address community-centric challenges. Among other concepts, Freire engages in Conscientization and codification centered through dialogue and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1996). Participants will engage in a framework that illustrates and assesses CT for Equity in light of the Freirian connection and determine its applications to their own context. Examples will be shared to spark connections to their context. His context furthers connections between computational thinking practices and restorative healing constructs as we bridge critical thinking frameworks.
Through this conceptual exploration, we will engage in the following:
Participants will recognize how our teacher residency program conceptualizes Computational Thinking For Equity through a Freirian lens
Participants will illustrate and analyze two critical thinking frameworks: the Freire problem-posing construct and our Computational Thinking for Equity.
Participants will assess the CT for Equity in light of the Freirian connection and determine applications to their context.
Freirian problem posing can further center computational thinking metacognitive process in healing and transformative ways.

Author

• Imelda Nava-Landeros, University of California - Los Angeles