Computational Thinking as an Approach to Learning Computer Science
There are many innovative schools that tout themselves as “21st Century schools.” While there are those superstar teacher(s) that do live and die by 4Cs practices, we still do hear a smattering of voices saying, “I teach to the standards!” Thanks to the draft of the California K-12 Computer Science Standards, the 4Cs are front and center — not as pedagogical practices, but as content standards.
In September 2018, the California State Board of Education adopted the California K-12 Computer Science Standards, as created by twenty-one individuals appointed by the state’s Instructional Quality Commission. As a member of this Standards Advisory Committee, I had an opportunity to look at the different curricular areas, as well as frameworks and standards in Computer Science and Edtech (CSTA, K12CS.org, ISTE, etc.). As we were building out what we deemed as a “Gold Standard” Computer Science Standard, one thing was apparent — the language we were using in the standards (that made it stand out from the other content areas) was that the pedagogical practice was so apparent in the words we using — we needed to make it overt in the introduction of the standards. Hence, the section called “Problem Solving and the 4Cs.”
Problem Solving and the 4 Cs
Problem Solving
Practice 3: Recognizing & Defining Computational Problems
Collaboration
Practice 2: Collaborating Around Computing
Critical Thinking
Practice 4: Developing & Using Abstractions
Creativity
Practice 5: Creating Computational Artifacts
Practice 6: Testing & Refining Computational Artifacts
Communication
Practice 7: Communicating About Computing
Equity
Practice 1: Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture
via Draft of the California Computer Science Content Standards
Equity is foundational to the standards. In addition to its value as an integral part of educating all students, it is of the utmost importance that diversifying K-12 student access to computer science make an impact on allowing more students (particularly girls and students of from marginalized populations) to determine if they have an interest in exploring that subject further in college and as a career (regardless of the field). For low-income students in particular, access to computing jobs provides a powerful social mobility opportunity.
Communication has always been something difficult to quantify in terms of educational practice. The study of computer science teaches students to consider their audience when communicating.
Creativity and innovation drive the computer science field. Computer science allows students to explore programs and identify problems they work to solve through the creation of new computational artifacts, and continue in this iterative creative process.
Collaboration in computer science fosters contributions and feedback from others, which may result in improved outcomes as opposed to working independently.
Through Critical Thinking students build knowledge of computer science core concepts through the cognitive work of identifying patterns, creating generalizations, evaluating existing functionalities, applying learning to new designs, and managing complexity.
While it has most recently been a focus of schools, “4C’s of 21st century” skills have been part of best practices for decades. The California Computer Science Standards now shifts this pedagogy. Shuchi Grover, in her EdSurge article, The 5th C of 21st Century Skills? Try Computational Thinking (not coding), argues that we need computational thinking (CT) to be another core skill — or the “5th C” of 21st century skills — that is taught to all students. There’s been much debate on what exactly in Computational Thinking. Further, there are those who feel Computational Thinking may diminish Computer Science education, in its “true form.” The fight for computer science to be a curriculum area and for content standards.
Finding the “silver bullet” for educators to be an easy on-boarding for computer science education, and have a pedagogical approach to computational thinking is the unicorn we all seek. In particular, teachers in elementary schools who do not have the luxury of “stand alone” computer science or robotics classes are even more challenging — particularly for more integrated STEM, STEAM, and/or Maker Education approaches. We call for collaborative approaches to this, with educators, curriculum developers and researchers to have a collective approach to solve this problem. It should not be Coding versus Computational Thinking, but a holistic approach to include both.
References and Attributions
K–12 Computer Science Framework. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.k12cs.org.
