Five Small Ways to Add Computational Thinking to Your Classes
Happy new year — or so I’d say if we weren’t already halfway through January! Regardless, it’s now 2023, and with that comes the urge for change.
Many people create resolutions at the beginning of a new year, which ties into a principle dubbed the “fresh start effect.” In a 2013 paper by Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Jason Riis, the fresh start effect is described as behavioral change connected to “temporal landmarks.” Temporal landmarks might be birthdays, Mondays or the start of months and years.
In harnessing this fresh start effect, it’s worth considering what you might want to bring into your 2023 classroom. Although classes have started, things often begin in a state of flux, particularly for educators with a student-centered course design. In higher ed, things can shift during acts of syllabus cocreation with students. For K–12 teachers, new units can mean new educational approaches.
Computational thinking has always had curricular value, given how helpful it can be. It isn’t a skillset relegated to a single field, for example, and learning to think computationally gives students new ways to solve problems. The computational mindset can also help students develop transferable skills, either for future projects or job readiness.
Want to add computational thinking to your classroom as a part of your fresh start? Read on for some ideas and resources.
1. Teach Students to View Things from Both a Macro and Micro Perspective
Two parts of computational thinking are decomposition, which looks at the way something can be broken down into smaller parts, and abstraction, which takes something complex and simplifies or abstracts it. These concepts align nicely with the idea of “macro” and “micro” lenses. In computational thinking, decomposition and abstraction serve to help break down and rewrite problems.
In your classroom, you can encourage students to switch between these two modes by giving problems that look at things up close as well as holistically. For example, you could diagram a sentence to understand its parts, then you could look at examples of sentences to brainstorm what makes them “sentencey”. Think of this as the difference between close and distant reading, two ways of approaching a text, each serving to help readers deepen understanding.
2. Show Students How Classification Works
Abstraction is a particularly difficult concept to understand — understandable, given that “abstract” is sometimes used to describe hard-to-understand things! Abstraction, as mentioned, helps when rewriting problems. A process or object can be abstracted, which will allow them to be added to code or worked upon by some algorithmic process.
This idea isn’t a total fit. Classification can often involve breaking things down into constituent parts, which is more a part of decomposition. That said, classification systems often look at things through broad categories. Humans, whales and foxes can be abstracted into the same category of “mammal,” although you might not see them as similar at first.
In introducing unique classification systems — such as through number talks with younger students, which show the myriad ways people “sense” numbers — learners can see how objects and ideas become data.
3. Connect Classwork to Pre-built Lesson Plans
Computational thinking isn’t a new idea. It’s been around for years and years, and it’s only the continual technological change that makes it more and more relevant for students. With that being the case, there are plenty of resources out there with lesson ideas and full pre-built lesson plans.
One resource to explore is Computational Thinking Initiatives, which provides pre-built lessons for various subjects. The lessons use Wolfram Language to help students read, adjust and understand data. Other Wolfram Research resources, linked from that page, can serve to provide ideas and support for educators hoping to share computational thinking with their students. (There are even professional development options!)
4. Encourage Coding in the Classroom
A post on this very blog suggests that computational thinking isn’t coding, which is true. Computational thinking is a problem-solving mindset. Decomposition doesn’t have to involve coding any more than, say, pattern-matching does. You can practice computational thinking through low-tech tools like puzzles and even pen and paper.
That said, coding can be a great way to get computational thinking into your classroom. Coding gives students a chance to see iterative change. It can further students’ understanding of ideas like abstraction by allowing them to see abstracted objects in code. It can use real-world scenarios to engage students, then connect to their interests to deepen that engagement.
The trickiest part of this “small” idea is that it requires some coding know-how on the teacher’s side. If this feels intimidating, look toward visual coding languages or lessons designed for young students. You could introduce concepts through these tools, then get more complex with symbolic languages as you become more confident.
5. Have Students Write Instructions or “Algorithms” to Show Stepwise Thinking
Algorithmic thinking is the part of computational thinking most connected to problem solving. Whereas decomposed or abstracted ideas are just objects, algorithmic thinking takes that mess of data and applies it to a question needing answering. It is the production and deployment of an algorithm, or set of instructions, to a task.
Having students learn to create their own instructions is one of the broadest and possibly most vital skills on this list. You can incorporate algorithmic thinking into any subject or level by having students write task lists, instructions and “recipes.” Make sure they consider how tasks could be interpreted — and misinterpreted. Perhaps you could have students extrapolate such ideas as “how to build a sentence” or “how to write a sonnet” or “how to describe a bird in order to name it.” (Hello to any ornithologists reading this!)
As 2023 begins, ChatGPT and AI-assisted writing have become focal points of discussion. In teaching computational thinking, you’ll help to teach students concepts connecting to these broader concerns. For example, talking with AI means understanding how it thinks and formulating the perfect query.
It might seem strange to teach something like AI, but it is just one of many things to consider in why computational thinking is important. If you’re emboldened by the fresh start effect, why not try leaning into the idea? See if you can get your students thinking computationally this year.
About the blogger:
Jesika Brooks
Jesika Brooks is an editor and bookworm with a Master of Library and Information Science degree. A lifelong learner herself, she has always been fascinated by the intersection of education and technology. She edits the Tech-Based Teaching blog (and always wants to hear from new voices!).
