Designing a Socio-Cultural Approachfor Teaching and Learning Computational Thinking

Abstract

In recent years, Computational Thinking (CT) has been claimed to be a powerful way for competencies and skill development for students at any stage. Programming has been the main tool for CT development; nevertheless, several issues associated with learning and teaching programming exist and have been widely described. In this study, we designed and tested in a qualitative way a set of active pedagogical strategies to implement an alternative way to immerse university students in the learning process of CT development. Such strategies were designed and analyzed under the socio-cultural vision of learning, in which individuals interact in communities to build significant knowledge. Results showed that our curriculum design engaged students in the active use of five key skills related to CT, which could be used as the base ground for further programming learning and high-level CT skills development. Additionally, data indicates that students were involved in reflective processes of learning, as well as in the development of key competencies such as teamwork, communication skills and creativity. Theoretical characteristics of the socio-cultural vision of education are subsequentially used to explain and discussed the scope and limitations of the implementation described herein.