Computational thinking development through creative programming in higher education

Abstract

Creative and problem-solving competencies are part of the so-called twenty-first century skills. The creative use of digital technologies to solve problems is also related to computational thinking as a set of cognitive and metacognitive strategies in which the learner is engaged in an active design and creation process and mobilized computational concepts and methods. At different educational levels, computational thinking can be developed and assessed through solving ill-defined problems. This paper introduces computational thinking in the context of Higher Education creative programming activities. In this study, we engage undergraduate students in a creative programming activity using Scratch. Then, we analyze the computational thinking scores of an automatic analysis tool and the human assessment of the creative programming projects. Results suggested the need for a human assessment of creative programming while pointing the limits of an automated analytical tool, which does not reflect the creative diversity of the Scratch projects and overrates algorithmic complexity.

Developing Scientific Literacy-Based Teaching Materials to Improve Students’ Computational Thinking Skills

“…Basically, students already knew the conclusions or answers of the hypotheses given, but they had not been able to describe the specific steps, choose and use the right information. The essence of CT required students to think step by step simultaneously and be able to make decisions about the quality and feasibility of the information and the products (Romero et al, 2017). Students were not yet accustomed to systematic problem-solving mindsets to the conclusion skills.…”

Toward Developing a Real-World Computational Thinking Test Tool from Existing Models

“…In 2006, Janet Wing defined computational thinking as a concept involving problem solving, system design, and understanding human behavior based on the concept of computer science when we first encounter a problem to be solved [2,5]. In recent years, we have emphasized abstraction and automation ability as core competencies, and these are skills that everyone should learn about computational thinking for in the future [6,7].…”

Defining computational thinking framework for introductory programming in higher education

“…The results of the assessment were categorized into five computational thinking concepts. Romero et al [16] proposed a framework for evaluating CT in creative programming activities. The intervention was applied to undergraduate students of a bachelor's degree in elementary school education.…”