EN FR
EN FR


Section: New Results

Computer Science Education

Participants : Michael Lodi, Simone Martini.

We study why and how to teach computer science principles (nowadays often referred to as "computational thinking", CT), in particular in the context of K-12 education (students aged approximately from 5 to 18). We study philosophical, sociological and historical motivations to teach computer science at all school levels. Furthermore, we study what concepts and skills related to computer science are not barely technical abilities, but have a general value for all students. Finally we try to find/produce/evaluate suitable materials (tools, languages, lesson plans...) to teach these concepts, taking into account: difficulties in learning CS concepts (particularly programming); stereotypes about computer science (particularly gender related issues); teacher training (particularly non specialist teachers).

Computational thinking definition

There is no accepted definition of computational thinking. From one hand we tried to find out the main common elements in the most important proposed definitions, and investigate, in a large sample of K-12 teachers, if they have a correct idea [30] about CT. We found the vast majority of them held misconceptions or partial views about it. We argued these may be consequences of a massive use of the term in school context [23]; we made clear “computational thinking” is not a new subject, but just a name to indicate computer science principles that should be taught to all students [21].

Evaluation of popularization initiatives

We analyzed [29] the sentiment of a large sample of teachers participating in the national project “Programma il Futuro” (Program the Future) - an italian version of Code.org with support materials. The sentiment was largely positive. Among other results, we note reported interest is equally distributed between male and female students in primary school, and shifts towards a higher male interest only from secondary school, suggesting a social influence.

Growth mindset and teacher training

Every person holds an idea (mindset) about intelligence: someone thinks it is a fixed trait, like eye color (fixed mindset), while others think it can grow like muscles (growth mindset). The latter is beneficial for students to have better results, particularly in STEM disciplines, and to not being influenced by stereotypes. Computer science is a subject that can be affected by fixed ideas (“geek gene”) and some (small) studies showed it can induce fixed ideas. Teachers’ mindset directly affects students’ one. We propose [42] a line of research to investigate mindset of pre-service primary school teachers before and after a “creative computing course”, to analyze and, in perspective, to change their specific “computer science mindset”.