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Suggested Citation:"6 Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12840.
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6
Next Steps

Discussions held at the February 2009 workshop did not reveal general agreement among workshop participants about the precise content of computational thinking, let alone its structure. Nevertheless, the lack of explicit disagreement about its elements could be taken as reflecting a shared intuition among workshop participants that computational thinking, as a mode of thought, has its own distinctive character.

Building on this shared intuition, it is fair to say that most workshop participants agreed that more deliberation is necessary to achieve greater clarity about what is encompassed under the rubric of computational thinking and how these elements are structured relative to each other. Toward this end, workshop participants thought that the second workshop would have value. Scheduled to occur in early 2010 and devoted to exploring pedagogy and how best to expose students to the ideas of computational thinking, the deliberations of this follow-on workshop will be valuable in shedding additional light on the content and structure of computational thinking for three reasons.

First, the diversity of views on the nature of computational thinking allows a great deal for exploration and innovation within the boundaries of a shared intuition, even if that intuition was not made precise in the first workshop.

Second, when designing courses, educators often reveal their beliefs about what is central to the subjects in question. Thus, a consideration of provocative and innovative examples of courses and curricular material

Suggested Citation:"6 Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12840.
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related to computational thinking is likely to provide valuable further insights into individual perspectives on that topic.

Last, and as noted at the end of Section 4.1.1, the technological substrate has proliferated by orders of magnitude since the late 1960s. Young people today—the targets of K-12 education—are correspondingly far more familiar with various manifestations of information technology and thus also more familiar with different contexts in which computational thinking can be relevant. It is hoped that the pedagogical focus of the second workshop will shed additional light on some of these different contexts.

For these reasons, the committee looks forward to the second workshop with anticipation.

Suggested Citation:"6 Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12840.
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Page 65
Suggested Citation:"6 Next Steps." National Research Council. 2010. Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12840.
×
Page 66
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Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking presents a number of perspectives on the definition and applicability of computational thinking. For example, one idea expressed during the workshop is that computational thinking is a fundamental analytical skill that everyone can use to help solve problems, design systems, and understand human behavior, making it useful in a number of fields. Supporters of this viewpoint believe that computational thinking is comparable to the linguistic, mathematical and logical reasoning taught to all children.

Various efforts have been made to introduce K-12 students to the most basic and essential computational concepts and college curricula have tried to provide a basis for life-long learning of increasingly new and advanced computational concepts and technologies. At both ends of this spectrum, however, most efforts have not focused on fundamental concepts. The book discusses what some of those fundamental concepts might be.

Report of a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking explores the idea that as the use of computational devices is becoming increasingly widespread, computational thinking skills should be promulgated more broadly. The book is an excellent resource for professionals in a wide range of fields including educators and scientists.

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