Using a Student-Centered Approach to Promote Computational Thinking
How can academics have interaction college students to be taught problem-solving expertise throughout the curriculum? One program has set out to educate computational pondering (CT) and coding expertise in a problem-centered strategy, fostering a student-driven studying design. In the method, college students develop persistence and creativity whereas academics join their studying with skilled requirements aligned with ISTE micro-credentials.
Tony Lam, head of arithmetic at Marymount Primary School in Hong Kong, acknowledged the mindset change required to create a student-centered coding expertise. Instead of merely giving step-by-step directions for college students to develop laptop packages in a teacher-centered strategy, he encourages college students to clear up issues through lively studying.
Lam, who started studying to code six years in the past, developed his expertise on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Master Trainer Program in Boston, an expertise sponsored by his college and supported by CoolThink@JC. Now, he hosts skilled growth workshops and lesson demonstrations for different academics in Hong Kong. Recently, EdSurge spoke with Lam about his expertise as a trainer chief for CoolThink@JC InnoCommunity, a group supported by over 50 frontline and devoted academics, serving over 100 major colleges.
EdSurge: How would you describe the CoolThink curriculum adoption to your college?
Lam: Marymount, an all-girls college, was one of many first major colleges in Hong Kong to implement the CoolThink curriculum. Professors and lecturers from MIT and the Education University of Hong Kong (EDUHK) offered 78 hours of coaching to the primary batch of academics to discover and be taught the CoolThink curriculum. EDUHK held common workshops to replace academics on any developments and modifications in this system.
The CoolThink curriculum provides a new ingredient to the general packages of our faculty and gives new alternatives for ladies to change into digital creators and makers by studying to code. CoolThink is a milestone in STEM schooling in Hong Kong, offering a complete and confirmed framework for computational pondering and coding schooling. CoolThink’s mission of making ready college students’ computational pondering expertise—crucial pondering, problem-solving and empowerment—are important for digital competence in at this time’s AI-powered world the place the flexibility to assume critically and decide truth from fiction is extraordinarily essential. AI or ChatGPT gained’t change you any time quickly, however somebody utilizing AI will.
Once we have been accustomed to the CoolThink curriculum construction, we personalized some facets, such because the themes and issue ranges, to swimsuit our college students’ studying wants and pursuits. For occasion, we created a unit known as Mascot Random Generator, through which college students create an app that may randomly generate one of many six School Value Mascots, or they will customise the app to randomly generate something, like pop stars or favourite meals. Another instance is the collaboration of know-how and arithmetic panels to information the scholars to create arithmetic packages to clear up specific issues like discovering the best frequent issue.
Eventually, I began to practice the trainers and supply assist for others to be taught the CoolThink curriculum. We collaborated with Hong Kong’s Education Bureau and held trainer workshops to share our experiences. We additionally hosted scholar workshops in different colleges that had not but joined the CoolThink venture to present studying alternatives for college students and display to the academics how CoolThink classes work. We collaborated with MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node to present skilled growth for academics in blended studying mode. It is essential to have extra coach mentors in order that the teacher-learning group will continue to grow and make sure the steady growth of computational pondering and coding schooling.
How do academics and college students profit from a problem-centered coding curriculum?
This curriculum has modified my instructing mindset. The CoolThink pedagogy emphasizes To Play, To Think, To Code, To Reflect. We encourage college students to discover the apps that they are going to ultimately create. We information them to observe, take into consideration crucial options and problem-solve earlier than they begin to code. The CoolThink curriculum is motivating and interactive, inspiring college students to create, experiment and debug with much less route from academics.
Such a mindset change can ultimately produce a extra modern studying and instructing strategy throughout different areas. I now duplicate the identical framework in my arithmetic classes. Instead of merely drilling arithmetic issues, I invite college students to share what mathematical ideas they’ve utilized by video games they create.
CoolThink gives equal entry and studying alternative for college students no matter their backgrounds, particularly these from low-income and ethnic minority teams. For instance, one among our college students didn’t excel within the conventional curriculum regardless of being very artistic and logical. But after we launched the CoolThink curriculum in our faculty, she did a lot of analysis on-line to be taught and create totally different apps. She joined coding competitions and gained a number of prizes. Learning to code additionally motivated her studying in arithmetic and artwork. Now she plans to attend a college and be a scientist.
How does CoolThink assist handle the digital divide and put together college students for the longer term?
In the kick-start part, CoolThink gives support to colleges by hiring extra trainer assistants and buying digital units, which permits college students from totally different social courses to have equal entry to {hardware} and studying assets. A CoolThink YouTube channel with greater than 100 instructing movies is out there for Cantonese-speaking college students. CoolThink gives equal entry to info and assets for college students so that every one college students can change into programmers.
CoolThink prepares college students for a lot of pathways by serving to them purchase primary computational pondering ideas and constructing a basis in programming languages early. This helps college students change into extra adequate self-learners in coding and broaden their profession selections in STEM-related fields. CT practices like testing and debugging and being incremental and iterative additionally develop their perseverant spirit in problem-solving. CoolThink prepares college students for entrepreneurship by empowering them with confidence and creativity, remodeling college students from digital customers to digital creators.
