Exploring the Field of Computational Thinking as a 21st Century Skill

Computational Thinking, which entails using analytic and algorithmic approaches to formulate, analyse and solve problems, has increasingly gained attention in the educational field in the past decade, giving rise to a large amount of academic and grey literature, as well as to numerous public and private initiatives to implement it. Despite such widespread interest, its successful integration in school curricula is still facing several open issues and challenges. In order to contribute to the field development, we are carrying out a desk investigation to draw a comprehensive overview of recent findings produced by academic research, grassroots initiatives and policy actions addressing the development of computational thinking in primary and secondary school, as well as to highlight major implications for policy and practice. In this paper we describe the project methodology and a classification of the comprehensive corpus of documents collected. We also present a preliminary picture of the field as it is emerging from our analysis. URI: https://library.iated.org/view/BOCCONI2016EXP [1] Authors: BOCCONI Stefania CHIOCCARIELLO Augusto DETTORI Giuliana FERRARI Anusca ENGELHARDT Katja KAMPYLIS Panagiotis [2] PUNIE Yves [3] Publication Year: 2016 Science Areas: Information Society [4]

[1]  Dianne Chambers,et al.  Digital Technologies: A new curriculum implementation , 2015 .

[2]  Shuchi Grover,et al.  Computational Thinking in K–12 , 2013 .

[3]  Sam Lubbe,et al.  The matrix method of literature review , 2007 .

[4]  Michal Armoni On teaching topics in computer science theory---part II: making it possible by using the prism of fundamental ideas , 2010, INROADS.

[5]  Joyce Malyn-Smith,et al.  Computational thinking for youth in practice , 2011, INROADS.

[6]  Mark Dorling,et al.  Scratch: A Way to Logo and Python , 2015, SIGCSE.

[7]  Jason Alexander,et al.  Computer science unplugged: school students doing real computing without computers , 2009 .

[8]  Mark Guzdial,et al.  EducationPaving the way for computational thinking , 2008, CACM.

[9]  Jonathan Francis Roscoe,et al.  Teaching Computational Thinking by Playing Games and Building Robots , 2014, 2014 International Conference on Interactive Technologies and Games.

[10]  T. Marteau,et al.  The Place of Inter-Rater Reliability in Qualitative Research: An Empirical Study , 1997 .

[11]  Jeannette M. Wing An introduction to computer science for non-majors using principles of computation , 2007, SIGCSE.

[12]  Roy D. Pea,et al.  Designing for deeper learning in a blended computer science course for middle school students , 2015, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[13]  Jeannette M. Wing Computational thinking and thinking about computing , 2008, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[14]  Mordechai Ben-Ari,et al.  Abstraction as a bridging concept between computer science and physics , 2014, WiPSCE.