Computational Thinking - Success for All |
Computational Thinking - Success for All
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This survey aims to explore the question, “Does every pupil show proficiency in programming when it is first introduced in class?” For validity, the questionnaire will be issued to around 100 practitioners. The ten questions should take around 5 minutes to complete. There will be an opportunity at the end of the questionnaire for any additional comments or burning issues you feel worth consideration in relation to any aspect of computational thinking. Findings will underpin the creation of a short series of activities for primary age children. There is also an opportunity to indicate an interest in continuing to be involved in this project.
Background
Computational Thinking (CT) has been hailed as valuable to everyone in the population, and if so, it should be taught to all. In addition, The Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young workforce (DYW) (2014) made recommendations to improve the employment prospects for Scotland’s young people. With the increasing value of computational thinking from governments and industries, including non-digital, there is a need for high quality learning and teaching in the area.
A typical reaction to this need is to equate computational thinking skills with programming skills and introduce programming from very early in the school curriculum. Given the difficulty that both schools and universities have faced for decades in enabling all learners to succeed at programming, we are questioning the value of this approach. In particular, are there pre-requisite skills to programming / computational thinking?
As a starting point, we want to ascertain whether novices who are introduced to programming via one of the new wave of educational programming environments (e.g. Scratch, Alice, Kodu, Bee-Bots etc.) are broadly universally successful in picking up the ideas and skills.
If all novices are successful, then a curriculum with exposure to programming at the early stages is sound. But if they are not, then we need to explore why some novices succeed where others don't. The difference could be innate, but our hypothesis is that it is more likely to be to do with attitudes to learning, kinds of toys played with, parental and sibling role models. We begin to gather data on this at the end of the questionnaire.
This research is part of a PhD study exploring worthwhile computational thinking skills irrespective of a child or young person’s chosen career.
A typical reaction to this need is to equate computational thinking skills with programming skills and introduce programming from very early in the school curriculum. Given the difficulty that both schools and universities have faced for decades in enabling all learners to succeed at programming, we are questioning the value of this approach. In particular, are there pre-requisite skills to programming / computational thinking?
As a starting point, we want to ascertain whether novices who are introduced to programming via one of the new wave of educational programming environments (e.g. Scratch, Alice, Kodu, Bee-Bots etc.) are broadly universally successful in picking up the ideas and skills.
If all novices are successful, then a curriculum with exposure to programming at the early stages is sound. But if they are not, then we need to explore why some novices succeed where others don't. The difference could be innate, but our hypothesis is that it is more likely to be to do with attitudes to learning, kinds of toys played with, parental and sibling role models. We begin to gather data on this at the end of the questionnaire.
This research is part of a PhD study exploring worthwhile computational thinking skills irrespective of a child or young person’s chosen career.