Computational Thinking for an Inclusive World: A Resource for Educators to Learn and Lead

In this episode I unpack Mills et al.’s (2021) publication titled “Computational thinking for an inclusive world: A resource for educators to learn and lead,” which is a white paper that provides strategies for integrating computational thinking into disciplinary learning and for developing capacity for 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

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode where unpack

    some scholarship in relation to computer

    science education in this week's

    particular episode i'm unpacking a paper

    titled computational thinking for an

    inclusive world colon a resource for

    educators to learn and lead this paper

    was written by kelly mills marika conrad

    patty ruiz quinn burke and josh weisgrow

    apologies if i mispronounced any names

    as always in the show notes you can find

    a link to this particular paper as well

    as a link to other resources such as

    other podcasts relevant to this episode

    and you can find the show notes by

    clicking the link in the after listening

    to the song or by simply going to

    jaredaler.com and clicking on the

    podcast tab while you're there you'll

    find hundreds if not thousands of free

    resources for computer science educators

    as well as some content for gaming and

    drumming because i stream on twitch and

    create content on youtube so stop by

    sometime and say hi speaking of stopping

    by somewhere i highly recommend going to

    bootup pd.org which is the non-profit

    that i work for who powers this podcast

    if you visit boot.pd.org you'll find a

    ton of free computer science education

    resources that i have created and you'll

    also learn more about our paid

    professional development all right so

    here's the abstract for this particular

    paper quote technology is becoming more

    integral across professional fields and

    within our daily lives especially since

    the onset of the pandemic as such

    opportunities to learn computational

    thinking are important to all students

    not only the ones who will eventually

    study computer science or enter the

    information technology industry however

    large inequalities continue to exist in

    access to equipment and learning

    opportunities needed to build

    computational thinking skills for

    students that experience marginalization

    we call all educators to integrate

    computational thinking into disciplinary

    learnings across pre-k 12 education

    while centering inclusivity to equip

    students with the skills they need to

    participate in our increasingly

    technological world and promote justice

    for students and society at large this

    report issues two calls to action for

    educators to design inclusive computing

    learning opportunities for students one

    integrate computational thinking into

    disciplinary learning and two build

    capacity for computational thinking with

    shared leadership and professional

    learning inspired by the frameworks

    strategies and examples of inclusive

    computational thinking integration

    readers can take away practical

    implications to reach learners in their

    new context end quote if i were to

    summarize this paper into a single

    sentence i'd say that this paper

    includes strategies for integrating

    computational thinking into disciplinary

    learning and for developing capacity for

    computational thinking right so this

    paper is 66 pages long so i'm going to

    go through it as quickly as i can while

    just kind of hitting on the salient

    points i do encourage you to read it got

    a lot of resources and examples that are

    worth exploring that i'm not going to

    dive into but i do hope you take the

    time to actually take a look at it and

    again it's a free paper so you can find

    a link to it in the show notes all right

    so here is a very quick overview of what

    they recommend this is from page five

    quote to provide all learners especially

    those experiencing marginalization

    opportunities to engage in computational

    thinking it is essential that educators

    integrate computational thinking with

    the topics they already teach like art

    english language arts math science and

    social studies end quote and so the

    recommendations that they provide are

    quote leverage synergies between

    disciplinary learning and computational

    thinking provide opportunities for

    students to build computational thinking

    skills in the younger grades and promote

    student agency and purpose end quote and

    right below that quote integrating

    computational thinking into every

    classroom is not something that can be

    left to individual educators educational

    leaders must prioritize the initiative

    and build capacity for teachers to do so

    end quote so here are three strategies

    that can be done in order to do that so

    quote promote shared leadership among

    districts schools and teachers develop

    sustained individualized professional

    learning opportunities and integrate

    computational thinking into pre-service

    teacher education end quote from page

    five all right so those are just the

    recommendations and the rest of the

    paper is gonna kind of unpack why it's

    important to do that and how you can do

    that so the first main section of this

    paper is the introduction and so in this

    introduction they're saying hey because

    of kova 19 and just because of you know

    the general purpose of computational

    thinking we think this is an important

    skill for students to develop in

    particular because we don't want kids to

    just consume technology want them to be

    able to create it and they explain that

    it's especially important for kids who

    are experiencing marginalization to

    learn computational thinking because

    they think it would be very helpful and

    in particular it should be integrated

    into every single class and that it

    really needs support from administrators

    to be able to do something like that

    here's a quote from page 8 and this

    gives a summary of like the rest of the

    paper quote it is divided into three

    sections first we present a brief

    overview of computational thinking what

    do we mean by the term and how do we

    apply it in practice next we examine the

    current state of k-12 computing

    education and the persistent challenges

    of providing students with access to

    computational tools and addressing

    systemic inequity and computer education

    and the tech world more broadly to

    combat these challenges we propose a

    framework for computational thinking

    integration with inclusive pedagogies at

    the center finally we describe two

    distinct needs for educators to create

    inclusive learning opportunities for

    computing one integrating computational

    thinking interdisciplinary learning and

    two building teachers capacity for

    computational thinking we describe

    strategies to address each need and

    highlight examples of educators using

    each strategy in action by the end of

    the report we hope that readers will

    have identified concrete next steps to

    further inclusive computing education in

    their context end quote that is an

    excellent summary of the remainder of

    this paper which is like 50 plus pages

    after this so in the next main section

    they talk about well exactly what is

    computational thinking so the way they

    situate computational thinking is within

    the broader umbrella of computing and it

    merges together and blurs together of

    computer science and programming but all

    of those fit within the bigger umbrella

    of computing and they have a nice venn

    diagram that kind of compares and

    contrasts from

    the past to right now in terms of how

    computational thinking was viewed so on

    page 10 there's a very important

    clarification here quote while computer

    science is an individual academic

    discipline computational thinking is a

    problem-solving approach that integrates

    across activities the skills and

    practices requiring computational

    thinking are broader leveraging concepts

    and skills from computer science and

    applying them to other concepts such as

    core academic disciplines for educators

    integrating computational thinking into

    their classrooms we believe

    computational thinking is best

    understood as a series of interrelated

    skills and competencies end quotes from

    page 10 and they describe it a little

    bit further down so this is a very

    important thing to consider having been

    in cs education for several years now i

    believe that we will never actually come

    to a unified definition of computational

    thinking spoken with many people about

    it there's some very interesting

    opinions about it in terms of thinking

    like a computer or thinking like a

    computer scientist etc and everybody

    disagrees with everybody else about

    whatever their definition is so it's

    really important that we understand how

    these authors are framing this so

    they're saying that computational

    thinking in this context in their

    framing is a problem-solving approach

    and it can be integrated across all

    activities and these concepts and skills

    are from computer science and they're

    applying them into

    other contexts to solve some kind of a

    problem all right so on pages 11 and 12

    they actually kind of talk about well

    what are these skills and what are these

    practices that make up computational

    thinking and by the way the authors use

    the terms concepts competencies and

    practices and they kind of all

    blend together so that's not just me

    switching up the different terms and

    whatnot so the first set of skills

    include abstraction algorithmic thinking

    debugging decomposition pattern

    recognition and selecting tools and then

    the computational thinking practices

    include automation computational

    modeling and data practices and so they

    mentioned previously that these are all

    interrelated and on pages 11 and 12 they

    include not only like the list of these

    skills but also a description for each

    one and then an example for each one of

    them so if you're curious well what do

    they mean by selecting tools or

    decomposition check out the descriptions

    and the examples in there hopefully it

    gives some clarification for you but

    these are all interrelated with each

    other and kind of work together to make

    up what they are describing as

    computational thinking now here's an

    interesting quote from page 13. quote

    although both plugged and unplugged

    activities are valuable learning

    experiences for students to build

    computational thinking skills leveraging

    technological tools where appropriate

    can support learners to connect and

    apply these skills to engage in

    computational thinking practices in the

    older grades end quote i totally agree

    so yeah i think there are some like

    really fun things that you can do with

    unplugged but it often decontextualizes

    things in ways that really don't make

    sense in my opinion the way i've

    described it before is like okay it's

    like you're trying to teach somebody how

    to play the drums without actually

    giving them some drums to play on or

    some sticks to use like yeah you can

    learn some drumming concepts but you're

    not going to become a good drummer

    unless you actually have drums with you

    trust me i know i played the drums for

    well over 20 years and taught it for

    just under 20 years so the same thing

    with computational thinking if you want

    to learn these skills and these concepts

    and be able to apply it especially like

    coding and whatnot you need a code yes

    you can learn concepts but when you do

    it outside of application especially in

    ways that are driven by students

    interests all right so there's more

    information in this section as with all

    the other sections i'm going to cover

    this is a very quick introduction i'm

    encouraging you to actually read it but

    i hope this podcast will like highlight

    some sections that you might be like oh

    i really want to check out the section

    titled the current state of computing

    education which is the next section

    starting on page 15. here's an

    interesting quote on that page quote

    well all 50 states have some policy in

    place promoting computer science the

    role of computational thinking within

    these initiatives is ambiguous the k-12

    computer science framework which many

    states use to develop standards

    integrates computational thinking into

    four of the core practices reasoning

    that the most effective context and

    approach for developing computational

    thinking is learning computer science

    they are intrinsically connected

    consequently most data points for

    participation and achievement in

    computing education are directly related

    only to computer science such as

    enrollment and elective computer science

    classes in high school and associated

    test scores end quote page 15. that's

    really interesting and the reason why i

    think that's interesting is because it's

    saying that the framework says the best

    way to basically learn computational

    thinking is to learn it through computer

    science and why i find that interesting

    is because so many people are trying to

    integrate compositional thinking into

    subject areas that are not computer

    science or putting it into ela or social

    studies or math or science or whatever

    so

    what i don't understand is just me

    thinking out loud this is not a

    criticism or anything i enjoyed reading

    this paper my thought is well if the

    best way to learn computational thinking

    is in computer science context and we

    think that all students should learn how

    to do this then shouldn't we focus on

    efforts that makes computer science

    mandatory as opposed to hey instead of

    making computer science mandatory let's

    just integrate computational thinking

    into a potentially less effective domain

    i.e not computer science so like ela or

    something but that's just me thinking

    out loud and i'll share more thoughts a

    little bit later at the end of this

    episode because that's what i do later

    on the authors do note a little bit

    further down that the resources and the

    amount of time required to do like its

    own standalone cs course are not always

    feasible and i totally get that but i'd

    also argue if computer science or

    computational thinking either of them

    are so important for every single

    student to learn then we need to make

    time for it no excuses but instead many

    administrators are forced with these

    time crunches of well computer science

    is not tested computational thing is not

    tested it's not part of the core

    curriculum reading right and arithmetic

    so let's just embed it in there and then

    cool we can have our caking eat it too

    but in my own opinion i think that's a

    disservice i've seen some schools say oh

    yeah we offer and teach computer science

    to our all of our students and by that

    what they mean is they do like an hour

    of code great that's awesome that you

    spent an hour throughout the year

    working on computer science happy for

    that but to say that you have a computer

    science program is a bit misleading if

    you're only spending that amount of time

    so if you are embedding just

    computational thinking into other areas

    with the hopes of being able to check

    off some standards that to me is saying

    hey we think this thing is really

    important but not as important as all

    these other things so if we're going to

    engage in discussions or discourse

    around computational thinking the way

    that this is framed is hey this is an

    extremely important set of skills and

    practices to learn but not as important

    as you know every other subject area

    that we're going to integrate into but

    those are my two cents now there's a

    subsection here starting on page 16

    that's talking about how we tend to

    measure the success of computer science

    through the ap computer science course

    and how this is pretty problematic one

    this is only offered in high schools as

    far as i'm aware none of the kids i

    worked with in the elementary schools

    took ap classes that i know of but two

    there's a certain demographic cluster

    that tends to take ap tests over others

    and marginalized communities tend to not

    take as many ap courses especially if

    they

    have a lower socioeconomic status and

    don't have the intention of going on to

    college so if all of our experiences

    related to computer science are being

    assessed by something that not every

    student is going to participate in we're

    not really going to have a good

    understanding of how successful we are

    at broadening participation in computer

    science or computational thinking again

    because of my background in music

    education here's an example from music

    it's like saying well how many kids are

    enrolled in the orchestra and using that

    to figure out how diverse the music

    program is when there's also a band

    acquire a percussion ensemble music

    production studio etc so yeah you could

    look at ap test scores but that's going

    to give you a very narrow slice of the

    pie because ideally your school is

    offering more than just aap computer

    science and ideally you're also offering

    it below

    high school so like middle school and

    elementary all right so the next section

    page 17 so this is on reimagining

    computational thinking to be more

    inclusive so this section i recommend

    spending some time diving into some of

    the resources that are listed here if

    you haven't listened to many episodes

    you'll find that there are a ton of

    episodes discussing equity and inclusion

    and access and all sorts of things that

    are important for educators and

    especially computer science educators to

    consider so you can actually dive into

    some of these a little bit deeper by

    checking out some of the previous

    podcast episodes but there are three

    categories that the authors recommend

    for classroom educators and these

    strategies include designing accessible

    instruction the second one is connecting

    to students interests homes and

    communities and the third one is

    acknowledging and combating inequity so

    here's a quick summary from page 18 of

    each of these quote designing accessible

    instruction refers to strategies

    teachers should use to engage all

    learners in computing connecting to

    students as interests home and

    communities refers to drawing on the

    experiences of students to design

    learning opportunities that are

    connected with their homes communities

    and interests to highlight the relevance

    of computing in their lives

    acknowledging and combating inequity

    refers to a teacher supporting students

    to recognize and take a stand against

    the oppression of marginalized groups in

    society broadly and specifically in

    computing end quote now again there are

    several podcast episodes for each one of

    these particular topics for example

    under designing accessible instruction

    they mention universal design for

    learning which i've unpacked some papers

    on also talked to jesse rathgeber and

    andreas steffek about accessibility and

    whatnot so check out those podcast

    episodes when it comes to student

    interest homes and communities check out

    like the podcast with the interview with

    mitch resnick and honestly most of the

    podcasts because my own approach in the

    classroom and with the curriculum i

    design for boot up is all about students

    interests guiding their learning but

    there are some specific episodes that

    i'll link to in the show notes and then

    acknowledging and combating inequity

    many of the podcasts also discussed this

    unpacking different frameworks like

    k-port centers culturally responsive and

    sustaining pedagogies the discussion

    with nikki washington and the discussion

    with joyce mccall and so many others so

    again i'll include links to these in the

    show notes which you can find at

    jaredoleary.com so the point of these

    three different sections in here in this

    particular paper is to say hey

    when you're doing computational thinking

    you need to do it in a way that

    acknowledges and combatant inequalities

    that also is designed for accessible

    instruction and it is also connecting to

    different student interests cultures etc

    i strongly agree with all of those ideas

    but i don't think it should be limited

    to just computational thinking alone i

    think good computer science practice and

    good education in general includes all

    those things and i say that as somebody

    who is taught in multiple subject areas

    so this is not just unique to

    computational thinking or computer

    science all right so the next section

    what districts should focus on integrate

    learning and develop capacity so this is

    the bulk of the paper so the first main

    need that they focus on is integrating

    computational thinking into disciplinary

    learning here's a quote from page 21

    quote integrating computational thinking

    can be beneficial for both the expansion

    of computing opportunities and

    disciplinary understanding from a

    computing perspective computational

    thinking integration conceives computing

    as a tool for understanding other

    disciplines and topics and therefore as

    an inherently relevant skill from a

    disciplinary content perspective

    computational thinking can deepen

    disciplinary learning some integrations

    will place a greater focus on computing

    while others will place the greatest

    focus on disciplinary concepts ideally

    an integration balances computing and

    disciplinary learning to promote both

    then ct can become a value add to

    disciplinary learning and not an add-on

    to an already over scheduled school day

    end quote from page 21 so to do this

    they have three different strategies the

    strategies are leveraging synergies

    between disciplinary learning and ct

    developing computational thinking skills

    in the younger grades and promoting

    student agency and purpose so for each

    of these three

    different strategies they provide an

    explanation of why is this important

    here's some research that suggests it

    and then they provide a couple of

    examples for each one of them different

    contexts explaining well here's how they

    did it here are some things to think

    about here's how it relates to

    computational thinking and

    ex subject area so in the first section

    that's on leveraging synergies between

    disciplinary learning and ct they

    provide a very quick overview of like

    some pre-k 3-12 and 6-12 standards in

    arts ela math science and social studies

    they have between like one and three

    examples of well here's how you might be

    able to use this in the arts here's how

    you might be able to use this in math

    and then following this they have two

    different examples so one is on

    integrating computational modeling into

    middle school science for bilingual

    students so check that out if that

    sounds interesting and then the next one

    is on exploring health disparities using

    data science in high school biology and

    those are pages 24-28

    so in the second section on developing

    computational thinking skills in the

    younger grades they say it's important

    for younger kids to engage in

    computational thinking because i can

    help them develop an interest in some

    foundational understandings of computing

    so the examples in here are on

    integrating life relevant computational

    thinking into preschool and then

    integrating computational thinking into

    elementary ela and so those are from

    pages 29 to 32 and then the further

    third strategy on promoting student

    agency and purpose is all about quote

    providing student-centered learning

    experiences so that students are driving

    decisions about what tool to use how to

    use it and for what purpose provides

    them with opportunities to gain

    experience autonomy and confidence in

    computing they can take outside of the

    classroom in quote now one of the things

    that i really

    really appreciated that they mention is

    there's a continuum of how you can

    actually implement or integrate

    computational thinking i've mentioned in

    other episodes about integration of

    computer science as a whole how there

    are many ways you can do it that could

    be subservient or multidisciplinary or

    interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary

    etc so include links to those episodes

    in the podcast as well as some episodes

    that kind of dives deeper into what do

    we mean by curriculum but for here they

    talk about how computational thinking

    could be a simple enhancement through a

    full-on transformation of how you

    actually engage with a subject area or

    domain this reminded me very much of

    sammer which sammer is an acronym for

    substitution augmentation modification

    and redefinition so the enhancement

    would be the substitution or

    augmentation we are going to use

    computational thinking to substitute or

    augment a subject and then the

    transformation side of things is

    modification or redefinitions we're

    going to have a completely new way of

    experiencing this subject area or this

    particular concept in a domain because

    of computational thinking i would argue

    from my own perspectives having read a

    lot of scholarship on computational

    thinking and seeing a lot of lesson

    plans that talk about and integrate

    computational thinking the vast majority

    of computational thinking is done

    through substitution or augmentation and

    does not actually get into modification

    or redefinition i.e it does not really

    transform the learning experience unless

    it uses an approach that was actually

    outlined in computational literacies

    which i did an unpacking scholarship on

    a particular paper by kfi and proctor so

    i highly recommend checking that one out

    if you're interested in computational

    thinking computational literacies in my

    opinion is like the next best thing for

    a variety of reasons that i kind of talk

    about within that episode one of the

    interesting things that i do notice when

    people talk about how computational

    thinking can be transformative is it's

    usually done using a computing device to

    design create or analyze so like being

    able to analyze large sets of data or

    create some kind of a computational

    model to simulate something or

    demonstrate something but thinking out

    loud whenever i see stuff like that it

    makes me go well then is it the thinking

    that's important or is it actually using

    a device that's more important but

    because it makes me think of that it

    just again brings me back to samura and

    makes me go okay well sammer is a

    framework for thinking through

    integrating technology in meaningful

    ways so you're not just like swapping

    out a whiteboard for a tablet and going

    look we're using technology but instead

    using the tablet and going hey instead

    of taking notes on here we can create

    mind maps that are hyperlinked to

    projects that students create all on the

    same device that is a modification or a

    redefinition of what you can actually do

    because of the device so again going

    with this line of thought if we're going

    to get into transformational

    computational thinking i'd like to see

    some more examples of just the thinking

    that is transformational and not just

    the use of a device that actually makes

    it a transformational experience but

    those are my own biases in this

    particular section on promoting student

    agency and purpose they do have some

    examples so one of them is on students

    identifying social justice community

    needs so that i can inform an app design

    and then the other one is on promoting

    student agency in data practices so if

    those sound interesting make sure to

    check out pages 34 all the way up to 38.

    now on page 39 there is the second need

    which is on developing capacity for

    computational thinking and so we have

    strategy one which is promoting shared

    leadership among districts schools and

    teachers strategy two is on developing

    sustained individualized professional

    learning opportunities and then strategy

    three is on integrating computational

    thinking into pre-service teacher

    education so for the first strategy on

    promoting shared leadership among

    district schools and teachers what they

    recommend for cs is to have consistency

    to make it so that cs is cumulative and

    that is competency based but in order to

    do this the authors argue that many

    leaders can't do this on their own so

    it's really helpful to have support and

    i'll include a link in the show notes to

    the cs equity guide which is really

    helpful for administrators because as

    written by administrators who are

    interested in implementing computer

    science in equitable ways so i highly

    recommend checking out one that podcast

    episode that unpacks it and then two the

    actual equity guide which is now being

    rolled out into more states than just

    california so check it out now in this

    section they talk about how many

    different districts implement ct in

    different ways some of them use it as a

    tool some of them use it as a theme and

    some of them use it as competencies just

    like how there's no unified definition

    of what computational thinking is

    there's also no unified way of actually

    integrating it or implementing it in

    other subject areas so it's really

    important when you're sitting down with

    your schools to figure out one are we

    trying to integrate computer science or

    computational thinking or both and then

    two

    what do those actually look like and

    make sure that we have a shared

    definition before you actually start

    going in and start implementing it

    because you might say

    hey we're going to integrate

    computational thinking into our

    classroom and that's going to mean

    something very different to a different

    person if they have a different

    definition of computational thinking and

    what it looks like so for example here's

    a quote from page 39 quote with tools

    districts provide technology and

    programs to teachers such as scratch

    code.org and project lead the way with

    themes they embed these tools into

    integration approaches such as maker

    learning or stem with competencies

    districts focused on student knowledge

    and abilities such as algorithms data

    and computational modeling

    competency-based pathways are an

    effective strategy to define

    computational thinking while providing

    educators flexibility to select

    appropriate tools and methods of

    instruction for their students end quote

    now in this particular section or

    strategy they provide two different

    examples so one of them is on designing

    k-12 computational thinking pathways in

    rural alabama and then another one is on

    developing school capacity using

    computational thinking integration

    framework and so these are discussed

    from pages 40 all the way up to page 44

    and on page 45 is the next strategy on

    developing sustained individualized

    professional learning opportunities so

    in this particular section they

    mentioned that quote teachers have

    indicated that challenges to integrating

    computational thinking into the

    practices include limited planning and

    instructional time and identifying

    connections between computing concepts

    and core content end quote from page 45

    one reason why they might not be able to

    make those connections between computing

    concepts and core content is because

    they don't have a very solid

    understanding of computing content or

    like computer science in particular or

    computational thinking in particular

    another reason why is maybe there aren't

    great connections between that subject

    area and computational thinking or

    computer science as i mentioned before

    in other podcast episodes many people

    have talked about how computational

    thinking can be used to analyze music

    and i've looked at that as a

    professional musician and music educator

    and said i don't know anyone who's done

    that from the standpoint of a composer

    producer a musician or a music educator

    it just doesn't make sense yes you can

    find patterns but that's not what we do

    when we are creating music there's so

    many more nuances and complications than

    just figuring out where there are

    repeats so i say that to say maybe

    computational thinking is not actually a

    good fit outside of limited application

    in a subject area so just because we can

    come up with a couple of simple examples

    of these potential connections to

    different domains doesn't actually mean

    it's robust enough to use everywhere and

    at any time but in this section on

    teacher support they suggest that we

    provide opportunities for ongoing

    professional learning we clarify grade

    appropriate terminology provide access

    to exemplar lesson plans create some

    strategies to assess student work and

    help develop the recognition of

    computational competencies then the

    authors provide some examples on

    differentiated readiness aligned

    professional learning for elementary

    educators which is from pages 49 through

    last strategy which is on integrating

    computational thinking into pre-service

    teacher education which is i know a huge

    step towards helping preparing future

    educators and they include a variety of

    different sections of what teacher

    educators might be able to do including

    like building partnerships between cs

    educators and teacher educators

    introducing computational thinking

    within the educational technology

    courses applying it across different

    methods courseworks or practicums

    creating some resources and tools that

    actually define computational thinking

    which good luck with that providing

    opportunities for pre-service educators

    to apply computational thinking in

    different disciplinary environments to

    problem solve and provide coaching for

    how to apply ct practices in the

    classroom and then engaging various

    stakeholders across higher education and

    local school districts so if any of

    those sound interesting make sure to

    check out pages 51-52 as well as the

    examples such as computational thinking

    and universal design for learning and

    introductory education coursework and

    integrating computational thinking into

    methods courses and student teaching

    experiences and those are starting on

    page 53 all the way up to 56 and then on

    page 57 is the conclusion and after that

    it's just all of the references and

    whatnot all right so at the end of these

    unpacking scholarship episodes i like to

    provide some lingering questions and

    thoughts this is not critiquing the

    authors or anyone who's interested in

    computational thinking i do have some

    general questions about computational

    thinking and in particular the way that

    is discussed so i just share them on

    here because i think we should talk

    about it more as a field before we

    actually continue to promote

    computational thinking for example it

    would be really helpful if we actually

    had a definition of computational

    thinking that people agreed upon the

    other episodes that i've done that talk

    about inclusive pedagogies and equity

    center pedagogies have very clear needs

    totally agree with that i do however

    disagree that there is a clear need for

    computational thinking a question that

    i've asked previously on this podcast is

    when is computational thinking in the

    discourse around it a form of

    epistemological colonization so

    colonizing our ways of learning

    or knowing so for example in this

    particular paper and again this is not a

    critique for the authors there was

    phrasing that computational thinking

    needed to be prioritized by district

    leaders on page 21. on page 28 they

    mentioned that it's really important for

    young children to learn computational

    thinking because this sets up pathways

    to get into other areas of computing and

    like page 18 and 19 is talking about how

    computational thinking gives some skills

    that allows people to understand

    technology and competing processes and

    so i agree that yeah maybe computational

    thinking would be useful for

    understanding computing but why is it

    that that makes it necessary to learn in

    literally every subject area which is

    what was proposed in this particular

    paper and has been proposed in many

    other papers that i've looked at if

    computational thinking has skills and

    practices that are specific to solving

    problems what if those problems don't

    need computing devices to solve them so

    why is it that we view everything from a

    technocentric framing yeah it's

    pervasive

    in society but it's not pervasive in

    every single academic domain and even if

    it is it's for different reasons than

    just to solve problems to dive a little

    bit deeper into the questioning the way

    that people discuss computational

    thinking is that it often comes across

    as refining a collection of tools but a

    collection of tools is not a heuristic

    or process to think through so because

    computational thinking isn't really a

    process to go through it's often framed

    within discrete tasks or activities but

    rarely is it actually discussed in

    relation to broader learning goals or

    purposes of studying a particular

    subject area so if we use language from

    like wiggins and mktai who talk about

    understanding by design and big ideas

    these are the questions that are core to

    a subject area that not only can

    students explore but professionals in

    the field are also exploring it and a

    lot of the big ideas that i have seen in

    different subject areas in my opinion

    aren't going to be answered through

    computational thinking but

    little problems that arise in relation

    to those big ideas

    might benefit from some forms of

    computational thinking but a lot of

    these domains honestly have their own

    frameworks for thinking through so for

    example design thinking is very useful

    for engineering and design and it is a

    process or at least it is framed as a

    process of empathizing defining ideating

    prototyping and testing it can be a

    linear process but it also has the

    opportunity to cycle back through the

    process at any given point this is very

    different than a collection of skills

    and practices that people can't actually

    agree what skills and practices count as

    computational thinking what skills and

    practices do not count as computational

    thinking so for me what i'm wondering

    out loud is why is computational

    thinking more important than a heuristic

    like design thinking and why is it so

    important that it's being encouraged to

    be pushed into every single subject area

    why can't it just be a tool or a set of

    tools that is used when it is needed

    rather than promote it as something

    everyone needs to do in every subject so

    to combine this questioning of this

    collection of tools with a previous

    point about epistemological colonization

    again this is me reflecting on the

    points of this paper this is not a

    critique of the authors by any means but

    the way that people generally talk about

    computational thinking is it's as if

    scientists who were really passionate

    about the scientific method said that

    every subject area should learn and use

    the scientific method but the way that

    they talk about it is as if they only

    spoke about instances where it sort of

    applies to a subject area but isn't

    actually getting at some of the bigger

    ideas or core ideas within that subject

    but instead are just finding almost like

    a affirmation or confirmation bias

    examples

    of where it might sort of fit but the

    biggest difference that i see between

    this hypothetical scenario of scientists

    engaging in

    epistemological colonization through the

    scientific method is actually a process

    to think through with some steps that

    people agree upon and not just like a

    relatively vague set of skills that can

    be interpreted many different ways so

    one thing that i think might be helpful

    for the field is to define when is it

    not computational thinking so for

    example it's framed as a problem-solving

    approach but not all learning is

    problem-based nor are there any set of

    skills or practices that are universal

    to solving any given problem so when

    does it make sense to engage in

    computational thinking and when does it

    not make sense to engage in

    computational thinking so while we tend

    to highlight instances where

    computational thinking fits within a

    discrete activity we also need to talk

    about when it does not make sense to use

    computational thinking i think this

    would help educators immensely however i

    also think it would be very helpful for

    the field to really take a look at kfi

    and proctor's discussion of

    computational literacies which i think

    helps clarify some of the issues that i

    see with computational thinking and in

    my opinion provides a more useful

    heuristic to think through and you might

    disagree and that's okay you can come on

    the podcast and tell me i'd honestly

    love to chat with somebody who

    completely disagrees with me on this so

    i can learn from you and if you want to

    do that you can find the contact me

    button on my website by clicking the

    link in the app they're listening to

    this on or by going to jaredaler.com or

    you could honestly even join me on

    twitch someday and jump in the chat and

    ask me questions about computational

    thinking or provide your perspectives i

    think it'd be funny to do that playing

    elden ring or fortnite while chatting

    about computational thinking let's do it

    anyways i'm getting too goofy right now

    so that is my cue to wrap up this

    podcast i do highly recommend reading

    this paper i enjoyed going through it

    there are a ton of resources and

    examples that are very relevant to a

    variety of educators so i hope you

    consider taking the time to checking out

    the actual paper itself and maybe

    sharing this podcast or the paper with a

    friend or colleague stay tuned next week

    for another episode and until then i

    hope you're all staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week


Abstract

“Technology is becoming more integral across professional fields and within our daily lives, especially since the onset of the pandemic. As such, opportunities to learn computational thinking are important to all students—not only the ones who will eventually study computer science or enter the information technology industry. However, large inequalities continue to exist in access to equipment and learning opportunities needed to build computational thinking skills for students that experience marginalization. We call all educators to integrate computational thinking into disciplinary learning across PreK-12 education, while centering inclusivity, to equip students with the skills they need to participate in our increasingly technological world and promote justice for students and society at large. This report issues two calls to action for educators to design inclusive computing learning opportunities for students: (1) integrate computational thinking into disciplinary learning, and (2) build capacity for computational thinking with shared leadership and professional learning. Inspired by the frameworks, strategies, and examples of inclusive computational thinking integration, readers can take away practical implications to reach learners in their contexts.”


My One Sentence Summary

This white paper provides strategies for integrating computational thinking into disciplinary learning and for developing capacity for computational thinking.


Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts

  • When is computational thinking and the discourse around it a form of epistemological colonization?

    • Why is there a tendency to center technology over everything else?

  • Discourse around CT sometimes comes across as reifying a collection of tools, but it’s not a heuristic or process to think through.

  • I think it would be useful as a field to define when something is not computational thinking


Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode



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