Many advanced countries are recognizing more and more the importance of teaching computing, in some cases even as early as in primary school. "Computational thinking" is the term often used to denote the conceptual core of computer science or "the way a computer scientist thinks", as Wing put it. Such term -given also the lack of a widely accepted definition -has become a "buzzword" meaning different things to different people. We investigated the Italian primary school teachers' conceptions about computational thinking by analyzing the results of a survey (N=972) conducted in the context of "Programma il Futuro" project. Teachers have been asked to provide a definition of computational thinking and to answer three additional related closed-ended questions. The analysis shows that, while almost half of teachers (43.4%) have included in their definitions some fundamental elements of computational thinking, very few (10.8%) have been able to provide an acceptably complete definition. On a more positive note, the majority is aware that computational thinking is not characterized by coding or by the use of information technology.

The series "Studies in Systems, Decision and Control" (SSDC) covers both new developments and advances, as well as the state of the art, in the various areas of broadly perceived systems, decision making and control-quickly, up to date and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and perspectives on the state of the art and future developments relevant to systems, decision making, control, complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social and life sciences, as well as the paradigms and methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, textbooks, lecture notes and edited volumes in systems, decision making and control spanning the areas of Cyber-

In this paper the rst two years of activities of "Programma il Futuro" project are described. Its goal is to disseminate among teachers in Italian primary and secondary schools a be er awareness of informatics as the scienti c basis of digital technologies. e project has adapted Code.org learning material and has introduced it to Italian schools with the support of a dedicated web site. Response has been enthusiastic in terms of participation: in two years more than one million students have been engaged and have completed a total of 10 million hours of informatics in schools. Almost all students found the material useful and were interested, teachers have reported. ey have also declared to have experienced high satisfaction and a low level of di culty. A detailed analysis of quantitative and qualitative data about the project is presented and areas for improvement are identi ed. One of the most interesting observations appears to corroborate the hypothesis that an exposure to informatics since the early age is important to a ract students independently from their gender.

This paper reports the results of an investigation involving almost a thousand primary school teachers in Italy, to explore their views on the terms "coding" and "programming", and how they are related to their ideas on "computational thinking". When directly asked "if coding is different from writing programs", roughly 2 out of 3 teachers answered "no". Among the teachers who answered "yes", almost 160 tried to motivate the difference: a few of them gave admissible explanations, while the others showed various misunderstandings, which we classify and discuss. By contrast, when asked about their idea of "what coding is", only 4 out of 10 of the teachers explicitly linked coding to programming, but an additional 2 out of 10 cited an information processing agent executing instructions. The remaining part of the sample did not provide explicit or implicit links between coding and programming. Our investigation shows that untrained teachers hold misconceptions regarding CS and its related terms. Given the general public and media attention on "coding" in schools, currently taught by existing teachers -mostly not appropriately trained, professional development actions focusing on CS scientific principles and methods are therefore a top priority for the effectiveness of CS education in schools.

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