What Does a Comprehensive Computational Thinking Curriculum Look Like?
When educators take into account the time period computational pondering (CT), they usually consider math or coding. But in case you ask Daniel Fung, vice principal and English trainer on the Sham Tseng Catholic School in Hong Kong, he’ll inform you computational pondering is a whole pedagogy geared towards educating lifelong problem-solving abilities.
Fung has adopted the award-winning curriculum CoolThink@JC to show CT to his college students and fellow academics. Recently, EdSurge spoke with Fung about how he makes use of this curriculum to information college students via a new strategy to studying and pondering.
EdSurge: How did you change into concerned with CoolThink@JC?
Fung: I turned an English trainer eight years in the past. I started coding in my second 12 months, after visiting academics in Edinburgh who launched me to micro:bit as a platform for educating a second language. My curiosity in studying code impressed me to look at on-line tutorial movies. I noticed my fourth, fifth and sixth grade college students may benefit from studying to code.
While educating English and dealing as a vice principal, I acquired a round from CoolThink@JC. I noticed a chance to refine my faculty’s curriculum.
What does a complete computational pondering curriculum appear like to you?
CT curriculum isn’t just about coding however slightly a pedagogy and mindset. Knowing methods to code on completely different platforms just isn’t the aim at our college—nor the CoolThink@JC program. We need college students to strategy pondering otherwise. We have stopped offering step-by-step directions to college students and have begun turning it over to college students for extra of a problem-solving strategy.
We need to transcend coding and combine computational pondering into college students’ every day lives. We train our college students procedures as a method to change into extra environment friendly; college students be taught every thought and motion is impactful. CT is a life talent—a method to strategy all issues tutorial and past.
How has your expertise as a CoolThink@JC fellow formed your skilled improvement and strategy to pedagogy?
For me, that is a new mind-set. I embrace it as a curriculum and pedagogical change for our college students and need to use it to assist make my faculty techniques extra environment friendly. For instance, we used it to revamp a very archaic technique of scheduling academics and courses. We started to strategy faculty operations and techniques via CT. It has made my faculty and me extra systems-oriented.
When I facilitate skilled improvement, I place academics into teams and design actions that information them to research a drawback for various options. I’m attempting to vary their pondering and the way they apply computational pondering all through their educating and every day lives. We spend little time speaking and extra time having academics drawback clear up. We mannequin to the academics how the sort of pondering is used and applied.
Some academic techniques want a mindset change. Instead of primarily specializing in studying, how about taking part in and exploring? When we first work with academics in CT schooling, we ask them to create an utility and admire their pleasure after they first create one. We actually need to get educators to embrace play, slightly than fear about specific outcomes.
Teachers usually assume CT is restricted to math or know-how classes. I’m an English trainer; I see worth in each educator advancing abilities in CT. It’s not nearly coding however slightly a mind-set and drawback fixing that can profit college students and educators.
All educators must see and expertise CT schooling. We must encourage academics to share computational pondering data and experiences with different academics. We additionally want universities to embrace this as a part of trainer schooling. We want leaders which are practitioners—tutorial leaders who combine coding and CT.
Can you describe a few of the studying outcomes you have seen along with your college students since adopting this curriculum?
There are tangible outcomes, such because the kinds of merchandise and tasks that college students produce. For instance, when college students take part, we regularly give them factors or credit score. This turns into fairly sophisticated and time-consuming. Our college students used micro:bit to create a approach for scores to be computed mechanically. They addressed a drawback they skilled and helped enhance the category system on their very own.
Another instance is when college students observed that individuals at house had been leaving their fridge doorways open, which resulted in shedding temperature and losing vitality. They used micro:bit and sensors to inform individuals to shut their fridge door. This is a nice instance of scholars utilizing computational pondering to enhance the on a regular basis lives of others.
And there are intangible outcomes as properly. Through CT, college students start to ask fewer questions and change into extra self-sufficient. They discover options through the use of their sources, asking the precise questions, researching and experimenting.
Traditionally, college students in Hong Kong have been fairly passive. Our lecture rooms was dominated by rows. However, as soon as we visited Edinburgh, we observed that college students had been seated extra collaboratively. Computational pondering helps us tackle most of these challenges. Initially, college students use CT to unravel issues that we offer them. Eventually, they transition to figuring out issues and creating options with much less tutorial steerage.
I believe CT promotes entrepreneurship—a means to vary and enhance the world. The nature of labor is altering. Our college students will proceed to be introduced with new, world challenges, and CT is the trail to handle these.
