Computational Thinking in Teacher Education

Source http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/4/215031-computational-thinking-for-teacher-…

• Professional Development
• Computational Thinking

Project GUTS was highlighted in a new article on Computational Thinking in Teacher Education.   The authors, Aman Yadav, Chris Stephenson, and Hai Hong, state "One example of embedding computational thinking in science classrooms is Project GUTS (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically), which highlights what computational thinking looks like for students using three domains: modeling and simulation, robotics, and game design.¹⁸ Using the StarLogo Nova computational environment, Project GUTS focuses on abstraction, automation, and analysis through a use-modify-create learning progression to allow students to use the tools, as well as modify and create them, thus deepening their acquisition of computational thinking concepts in the context of science learning."

See http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/4/215031-computational-thinking-for-teacher-education/fulltext .

Key insights offered in the article are that

• Few teacher-education programs focus on training pre-service teachers to incorporate CT in to K-12 classrooms.
• Redesign of courses on educational technology and methods is critical to developing pre-service teacher competencies in computational thinking.
• Education and computer science faculty should work collaboratively, using their complementary expertise in computing and teacher development.