What is computational thinking?
There have been several attempts to explain computational thinking and the benefits of related learning experiences requiring computational thinking to a much larger proportion of K-12 students. As part of what we would describe as the initial K-12 interest in programming, Seymour Papert (1980, 1981) argued that children could develop procedural thinking from LOGO programming. We provide an example suggested by Papert to demonstrate the computational understanding of the geometric concept of a circle. Advocates associated with the more recent focus on computational thinking (Grover & Pea, 2013; National Research Council, 2010; Wing, 2006) argue similar benefits in problem solving and conceptualizing skills. One description describes the broad benefits as developing “mental tools” as well as “metal tools”.
Still, what does thinking like a computer scientist mean? We like the description that computational thinking involves the use of an abstract approach that describes solving a problem in terms of steps and algorithms. More specifically, computational thinking attempts to model a process as modules; approaches problem solution through an algorithmic flow of control, iteration and recursion, and conditional logic; and responds to the failure of problem solution through systematic error identification and debugging. It occurred to us in writing this section that the model of cognition we developed in chapter two is very possibly a good example of computational thinking. Although expanded in our approach, the abstract cognitive model, originally called an information processing model, suggests that we think of cognition in terms of the movement of information between stores, the selection of subsets of information to move and use in reasoning, the organization of information within structures, and the monitoring and adjustment of processes when cognition fails. The model of the writing process has similar characteristics.
Grover, A. & Pea, R. (2013). Computational thinking in K-12: A review of the state of the field. Educational Researcher, 42, 38-43.
National Research Council. (2010). Committee for the Workshops on Computational Thinking: Report of a workshop on the scope and nature of computational thinking.