A Revaluation of Computational Thinking in K–12 Education: Moving Toward Computational Literacies

In this episode I unpack Kafai and Proctor’s (2021) publication titled “A revaluation of computational thinking in K–12 education: Moving toward computational literacies,” which summarizes three key framings of computational thinking and proposes computational literacies in place of computational thinking.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    CSK8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of this podcast is either an

    episode with a guest or multiple guests

    or a solo episode where i unpack some

    scholarship in relation to computer

    science education in this week's

    particular episode i'm unpacking a paper

    titled a revaluation of computational

    thinking and k-12 education colon moving

    toward computational literacies and this

    paper was written by yasmine kefai and

    chris proctor here's an abstract for

    this paper quote over the past decade

    initiatives around the world have

    introduced computing into k-12 education

    under the umbrella of computational

    thinking while initial implementations

    focused on skills and knowledge for

    college and career readiness more recent

    framings included situated computational

    thinking identity participation creative

    expression and critical computational

    thinking political and ethical impacts

    of computing justice this expansion

    reflects a revaluation of what it means

    for learners to be computational

    literate in the 21st century we review

    the current landscape of k-12 computing

    education discuss interactions between

    different framings of computational

    thinking and consider how an

    encompassing framework of computational

    literacies clarifies the importance of

    computing for broader k-12 educational

    priorities as well as key unresolved

    issues end quote bar to summarize this

    paper into a single sentence i'd say

    that this paper summarizes three key

    framings of computational thinking and

    it proposes computational literacies in

    place of computational thinking alright

    so this paper can be found in the show

    notes which is at jaredoleary.com where

    the hundreds if not thousands of free

    computer science education resources

    including a link to boot up pd.org which

    is the non-profit that i create 100 free

    elementary coding curriculum for in the

    show notes you'll find links to other

    podcasts that are relevant to this as

    well as a direct link to the paper

    itself which at the time of this

    recording is available for free and it's

    only about five pages long six pages if

    you include the references i will

    however say that i highlighted more than

    i did not highlight when reading through

    this particular paper i really enjoyed

    this episode so if yes mean and or chris

    are listening to this i would love to

    have you on to talk more about this as

    well as your other research and

    publications that you've done alright so

    this paper begins with a very quick

    introduction into computational thinking

    talking about jeanette wing's definition

    of computational thinking and then doing

    a very quick overview of how it's kind

    of changed or evolved over the years in

    particular the authors argue that

    computational thinking was initially

    framed around problem solving with

    computers however some scholars and

    educators have suggested that we should

    instead focus more on quote

    understanding of the values biases and

    histories embedded in computational

    technologies and cultures which run on

    computers such an expanded framing of

    computational thinking will include

    pragmatic social cultural and political

    dimensions in order to address critical

    aspects of inequalities caused or

    exacerbated by the societal impact of

    computing and the growing prominence of

    cs as an academic field end quote that

    quote is from page two so after the

    intro the authors go into a discussion

    on the three framings of computational

    thinking so the three framings if i were

    to summarize them very quickly are

    cognitive framings situated framings and

    then critical framings all right so

    here's another quote from page two that

    summarizes each of these three quote one

    cognitive framings viewing learning as

    the acquisition of knowledge and skills

    and emphasizing preparation for future

    careers two situated framings viewing

    learning as identity formation through

    participation in disciplinary practices

    and emphasizing creative expression and

    social engagement in digital media and

    three critical framings viewing learning

    as developing an understanding of how

    realities are shaped and emphasizing

    strategies for resisting marginalization

    and oppression end quote alright so in

    the following couple of pages the

    authors kind of dive a little bit deeper

    into each one of these three so in

    cognitive framings there's a tendency to

    focus on students outcomes without

    paying attention to how their learning

    is embedded within social and cultural

    context so this specifically focuses on

    what students are learning so for

    example like some misconceptions around

    programming or some of the challenges

    that they experience when they are

    programming or like debugging or

    something like that but it doesn't

    necessarily take into account does the

    student feel welcome within that

    environment do they feel like they

    belong et cetera there's more focusing

    on what they know rather than how their

    contacts impact what they know and what

    they learn on the other hand situated

    framings take into account the different

    identities in relation to the context in

    which learning occurs here's a quote

    from pages two and three quote situated

    framings of computational thinking

    understand learning in terms of identity

    practice and participation and see

    computing as a vehicle for personal

    expression and connecting with others

    alongside and intersecting a plurality

    of other literacy practices here

    applications are focused on connecting

    the learning of programming with

    students is prior interests including

    music storytelling or most often video

    games end quote the way the authors

    describe situated framings is that

    learning is situated within a community

    of practice that has some shared goals

    and values and the focus is on maybe

    kids being able to express themselves

    through code or through computing and if

    that sounds familiar to you that's

    because i've had many guests on who i

    would argue use a situated framing of

    computational thinking if they were to

    promote computational thinking but if we

    expand beyond computational thinking and

    just think of computing in general

    computer science many of the guests have

    discussed the desire for students to be

    able to express themselves and i have

    done so as well so like our curriculum

    at boot up is heavily focused on

    situated language and learning so one of

    the authors that they cite in here james

    paul g is a professor of mine i've read

    several of his books on this topic so it

    heavily informed the curriculum that i

    was creating which also heavily informed

    the pd that we do at boot up however the

    way that we also describe things can

    also fall into the category of a

    critical framing and it depends on what

    way you were to approach the curriculum

    that i use or the pd that we facilitate

    at buddha alright so a critical framing

    is quote contextualizes cognitive and

    situated practices within broader

    cultural formations such as race gender

    class and language one mode of

    criticality computing in the world

    focuses on understanding the role of

    computational infrastructure in society

    and particularly its role on reproducing

    oppression end quote that's from page

    three now if we flip this critical

    framing we could also look at the world

    within computing culture so for example

    taking a look at the sexism that has

    gone on within different corporations

    such as like in some gaming communities

    etc that is a way of looking inside the

    culture of computing rather than looking

    at how computing impacts cultures

    outside of that now the authors do

    mention that there is overlap between

    these it's not like you just have to be

    one or the other so while i mention that

    i'm heavily influenced within the

    situated framings and scholars within

    that area we also have the opportunity

    through the curriculum and the pd to

    dive into the cognitive or the critical

    framing it really depends on how you use

    the curriculum because they're designed

    for multiple use cases rather than just

    hey everybody you're all going to learn

    this exact same thing and create the

    same product through this project

    instead it's more of here is an idea or

    a foundation that you can build off of

    and you can explore this in different

    ways it could focus more on your

    identities as an individual and maybe

    even some of the oppression that you

    experience or people that you know or it

    could focus on your interests or it

    could just focus on exploring different

    concepts and practices within computer

    science it depends on how you as the

    learner explores the resources but it

    also depends on how somebody facilitates

    the use of those resources for example

    are the example projects a model or a

    mandate are you creating the exact same

    thing and replicating it or are using as

    the model to say oh here are some ideas

    but i'm going to change it and make it

    my own while i prefer the latter i

    prefer to use it as a model that you can

    remix and expand and make your own to

    make it interesting i have seen other

    educators use the resources that i've

    created as more of a mandate and just

    because i have a preference for one over

    the other it doesn't mean that you can't

    use it a different way okay so after

    this framing of the three different

    types of computational thinking the next

    section is titled moving toward

    computational literacies so they

    mentioned that they use the term

    literacies to account for like the

    different ways that people can engage

    with computing rather than just saying

    there is one computing literacy and this

    use of the term draws from a variety of

    different fields such as like learning

    sciences and i've seen it in media

    studies etc so here's a quote from pages

    three and four that actually defines

    well what exactly is computational

    literacies what does this mean quote we

    define computational literacies as a set

    of practices situated in a social

    cultural context which utilize external

    computational media to support cognition

    and communication computational

    literacies encompass phenomena at scales

    from the individual to the societal as

    well as connections between three

    phenomena and the media which supports

    and shapes them end quote okay so let's

    kind of break this down a little bit so

    the first part we define computational

    literacies as set of practices situated

    in a social cultural context okay so the

    things that you would learn through

    computational literacies are relevant

    within the real world that's kind of

    like one way that you can look at this

    so instead of just learning a concept

    for the sake of learning a concept it's

    oh this is embedded within something you

    actually use in social cultural context

    so outside of the classroom so rather

    than call this a set of concepts it's

    saying practices so practices is

    something that you do rather than just

    conceptualize or understand or think

    through so this is much more

    action-oriented than the word

    computational thinking where you're just

    thinking you don't necessarily have an

    action associated with that although you

    certainly can the wording itself does

    not lend itself to a doing but instead

    of a conceiving or thinking through okay

    so now let's look at the second half of

    this sentence so the first part was

    talking about practices situated in

    social cultural contexts which utilize

    external computational media to support

    cognition and communication so it's

    saying it utilizes external

    computational media okay so rather than

    just thinking computationally you're

    actually using media specifically

    computational media in those practices

    that you're doing this is very different

    computational thinking initially started

    as like thinking as a computer scientist

    or thinking

    as how a computer might solve a problem

    and in my opinion it moved so far away

    from that that you didn't even need to

    think about computers or computer

    scientists at all to engage in this very

    watered-down version of problem-solving

    that happened to be labeled

    computational thinking simply because it

    has some labels within it that were

    related to computer science like

    decomposition abstraction algorithms

    pattern recognition etc this definition

    of computational literacies however

    specifically focuses on computational

    media so it's bringing it back to

    computing not just thinking but the very

    last part of this of supporting

    cognition and communication i like the

    fact that it helps with the thinking

    side of things the understanding

    cognition but also how to communicate

    it's important for people to engage in

    computational literacies not just as a

    problem-solving tool but to also be able

    to communicate things if we go to that

    second sentence where it was talking

    about the phenomena on the scale from

    individual to societal it's important to

    be able to communicate as an individual

    how computing is relevant to you but

    also how it impacts society so for

    example if you're going to go into more

    of the critical framings of

    computational literacies thinking of how

    computing can oppress others either

    intentionally or unintentionally being

    able to communicate that and to be able

    to understand how it does that and then

    engage in

    practices that can have an impact on

    that hopefully improve that is important

    then the very last part so the quote of

    connections between these phenomena and

    the media that supports and shapes them

    is saying that there's a relationship

    between the two so rather than having

    unidirectional like this computing

    device has an impact on people but

    people don't have an impact on computing

    it says that there is a relationship

    that you need to figure out how one

    shapes the other and vice versa and i

    think this is very important so after

    that little bit of a ramble i'm gonna

    read this quote again one more time from

    pages three and four quote we define

    computational literacies as a set of

    practices situated in a social cultural

    context which utilize external

    computational media to support cognition

    and communication computational

    literacies encompass phenomena at scales

    from the individual to the societal as

    well as connections between these

    phenomena and the media which supports

    and shapes in end quote there's so much

    to unpack in that definition and

    hopefully that little unpacking that i

    did assisted with understanding this but

    i really like this framing in it there's

    so many meanings that can just be

    derived from those two sentences alone

    that you could write an entire paper

    that just talks about that and the

    potential implications of the wording

    that is in that particular definition if

    however you disagree with this wording

    or you think that it should include a b

    or c or whatever feel free to reach out

    to me i'd love to have you on the show

    to kind of unpack this and talk about it

    some more there is a contact me button

    on my website at jaredoleary.com you can

    reach out there all right so the next

    page in this section discusses three

    core questions about the relationship

    between computer science and k-12

    education so these questions are related

    to whom what and how so the first one

    with whom who should learn computer

    science now the authors point out that

    well i mean it might be pretty

    straightforward that everybody should

    learn computer science but they

    problematize this a bit more because the

    discourse tends to be around well

    there's not enough people who can fill

    the jobs right now so therefore

    everybody should learn computer science

    but there are many more nuances to

    consider than just hey there's open jobs

    so therefore everyone needs to learn

    this thing because if literally

    everybody was qualified to do it there

    would not be enough jobs for everybody

    to go into that field but then what

    about the negative impact on every other

    field that doesn't require computer

    science here's a quote from page four

    quote while technology careers are one

    possible endpoint for k-12 cs education

    they should not be the only option

    instead we also need to include

    vocational training civic engagement and

    creative expression as possible options

    end quote totally agree with that now a

    little bit further down in that same

    paragraph here's a longer quote that i'm

    gonna read and it's a really good quote

    also from page four quote from the

    perspectives of computational literacies

    the cognitive and situated practices

    which constitute cs are endemic to a

    particular highly privileged community

    these practices have been phenomenally

    successful but it does not necessarily

    follow that the same practices will

    serve other communities with their own

    goals in the same way does cs for all

    imply that everybody ought to change to

    accommodate cs or that cs ought to

    change to accommodate everybody in our

    view there are parallels to the claim

    that standard english is for everyone

    both in terms of why the claim is

    problematic and how we might

    productively advance a discussion of

    educational priorities in quote so two

    weeks ago i did an unpacking scholarship

    episode that at the end on my lingering

    thoughts and questions i shared that

    i shared that computer science might be

    a form of colonization on certain

    identities or communities or ways of

    being or even valuing so the example

    that i gave is are we going to force

    amish communities to learn cyber

    security or is that a form of

    colonization if we were to do that so

    the way that cs and ct or in this case

    cl computational literacies is disgust

    comes from a place of privilege at times

    and might not always consider whether or

    not a community actually values those

    goals in the same way and i keep

    bringing this back up but pedagogy the

    press by paulo ferrari discussion on

    dialogue check out chapter three to kind

    of learn more about the importance of

    actually engaging in a discussion or a

    dialogue between oppressor and the

    oppressed rather than just making

    assumptions and i'll include a link to

    that in the show notes now the paragraph

    that's right after that also has some

    really good quotes in there talking

    about the digital divide the halves and

    have-nots and access technological

    determinism etc so i highly recommend

    actually going and reading this paper to

    read what's going on there but even

    though i've got the majority of this

    paper highlighted i can't read all of it

    just because of copyright issues and

    whatnot so check it out it's on page

    four left side starts with paradigms etc

    right so the second question on the what

    so on the top right corner of page four

    the authors discuss how when you define

    literacies and what it means as who is

    literate and who is not this is a way of

    defining what practices are considered

    to be legitimate and what are not so

    thinking of like laeven wenger's

    legitimate peripheral participation

    which is a key part of communities of

    practice if you haven't read up on that

    scholarship it's very interesting and

    very seminal maybe i'll do an unpacking

    scholarship on that and the authors

    mentioned that it's important to think

    through these forms of legitimization

    because quote such definitions could be

    helpful in constructing pathways to

    educational opportunity but they could

    also contribute to blaming victims for

    their own marginalization in our view

    the question of what to teach in k-12 cs

    need not have a single answer but could

    instead have many answers grounded in

    the computational literacy practices of

    diverse communities and cultures end

    quote yeah so that last part in

    particular just resonates so much like

    i've mentioned many times that i try and

    take a multi-perspectivalist approach in

    that there are many different ways that

    you can engage in computer science

    whether it's from a pedagogical

    standpoint or a content standpoint or

    whatever and so to acknowledge that what

    might work for you and the communities

    that you work with might not work well

    for others is one of the reasons why i

    strongly question standards when it is

    imposed as everyone should engage in

    these concepts and practices in the same

    way that i think is problematic however

    to argue with myself i also think it's

    helpful for teachers who do not have the

    ability to kind of to set their own

    pathways that align with the needs of

    the communities and the students that

    they work with the standards can be very

    useful for serving as like a landmark to

    say oh this is something that might be

    useful to explore but we don't

    necessarily have to so again treating it

    as a model rather than a mandate i think

    is a way that you can have your cake and

    idiot too with standards so you can

    problematize it and say hey this isn't

    the only way of conceiving of computer

    science but also acknowledging that hey

    this is really useful when exploring the

    domain of computer science if you don't

    have much experience guiding people

    through the domain alright so the last

    question that they have on here is

    related to the how so quote how should

    we teach computational thinking should

    it be taught as a standalone topic or

    integrated within other k-12 classes

    despite considerable evidence that

    learning computational thinking does

    little for students general

    problem-solving abilities we noted above

    that decontextualized curricula and

    assessments dominate current k-12 cs

    education initiatives end quote from

    page four again that really resonates

    and so does the following quote a little

    bit further down in the paragraph quote

    this approach risks a one-directional

    integration of computational thinking

    into existing literacies tailoring

    instruction to make it relevant to

    diverse cultures and identities as

    suggested by the metaphor of a leaky

    pipeline of stem education without also

    locating educational goals in those

    cultures and identities and then asking

    how or if computation might contribute

    end quote yet again just absolutely love

    some of these quotes in here i've seen

    many many times at different conferences

    over the years people talk about oh well

    you can use computational thinking for

    making music see look at these lyrics

    right here we can find loops in here and

    we can rewrite these lyrics as an

    algorithm okay you can do that however

    one of the things that's often not asked

    in those discussions is how does that

    actually contribute to making music so

    as somebody who has multiple degrees in

    music education and been around

    musicians for the majority of my adult

    life i don't know anyone who uses

    computational thinking when creating

    music and yes i do know several

    musicians who compose who are also

    programmers including myself but i

    literally don't know a single person who

    engages in computational thinking

    deliberately to make music or who look

    at computational thinking go oh wow

    that's going to be extremely useful for

    writing my next rondo so while yes you

    can look at things through a lens of

    computational thinking we really got to

    consider is this appropriate does this

    contribute and how and then also

    acknowledging that hey you know these

    domains that we're looking at also have

    their own ways of thinking and maybe

    some of those ways of thinking would be

    useful for computer scientists rather

    than assuming computer scientists have

    the answer that can be applied into

    every single domain i'm not saying

    everyone who investigates and discusses

    computational thinking thinks that way

    but it is often framed that way or it

    can at least come across that way

    unintentionally all right so the last

    section in this paper is on priorities

    for k12 inquiries so in this are

    basically calling for more research on

    computational literacies so rather than

    just focusing on computational skills

    and concepts they would like for more

    research to actually focus on student

    identities and the communities in which

    they live in addition to that we also

    need to focus on pedagogies that

    consider both the political and ethical

    implications of teaching cs and

    problematize how having like in a unit

    or a module or a course on ethics is

    just not enough so fusing together the

    situated framings and the critical

    framings with the cognitive framings in

    order to explore cs more holistically in

    a way that's relevant but also is useful

    for not only the kids that we work with

    but for the world alright so that's a

    quick summary of a fairly short paper

    but again i highlighted so much in this

    paper i do highly recommend taking a

    look at it i now want to share some of

    my lingering questions and thoughts

    related to reading this particular paper

    so one of them is i

    mention this a little bit but i really

    like the way of how the authors move

    away from the word thinking toward

    literacies the focus on practices makes

    this much more actionable and doable

    rather than just focusing on cognitive

    things so rather than just focusing on

    thinking we're actually doing something

    with that thinking and it's implied in

    the framing of the words that are used

    in their definition now i could go on

    for a long time about some of my

    thoughts about this particular episode

    but i've kind of embedded those

    throughout this so what i'm curious

    about is what are your own thoughts

    after hearing the definition of

    computational literacies and hopefully

    after reading the paper so what i'd

    highly recommend is actually going on

    social medias or going with your own

    social groups and just engaging in a

    discussion on this maybe doing like a

    little study on this particular paper

    and kind of talking about well what does

    this mean for our computer science

    programs and if it's not computer

    science programs and you're just

    engaging in computational thinking what

    does it mean for that i include a link

    to this paper in the show notes which

    again you can find at jaredlery.com and

    again it's available for free right now

    on my website there's contact me button

    so feel free to reach out if you'd like

    to be a guest on the show and then check

    out all the other links to the hundreds

    if not thousands of free resources on my

    website including the link to boot up

    pd.org for another episode and until

    then i hope you're staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week


Abstract

“Over the past decade, initiatives around the world have introduced computing into K–12 education under the umbrella of computational thinking. While initial implementations focused on skills and knowledge for college and career readiness, more recent framings include situated computational thinking (identity, participation, creative expression) and critical computational thinking (political and ethical impacts of computing, justice). This expansion reflects a revaluation of what it means for learners to be computationally-literate in the 21st century. We review the current landscape of K–12 computing education, discuss interactions between different framings of computational thinking, and consider how an encompassing framework of computational literacies clarifies the importance of computing for broader K–12 educational priorities as well as key unresolved issues.”


Author Keywords

Computers and learning, computer science education, critical theory, identity, literacy


My One Sentence Summary

This paper summarizes three key framings of computational thinking and proposes computational literacies in place of computational thinking.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode

  • Podcasts that are relevant to this episode

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    • The Subservient, Co-equal, Affective, and Social Integration Styles and Their Implications for [Computer Science]

      • In this episode I unpack Bresler’s (1995) publication titled “The subservient, co-equal, affective, and social integration styles and their implications for the arts,” which “examines the different manifestations of arts integration in the operational, day-to-day curriculum in ordinary schools, focusing on the how, the what, and the toward what” (p. 33).

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