Computational thinking and interdisciplinary learning: time to focus on pedagogy Online publication date: Tue, 15-Sep-2020
by Michael Vallance; Phillip A. Towndrow
International Journal of Learning Technology (IJLT), Vol. 15, No. 2, 2020
Abstract: Within the educational change literature and commentaries on the needs and requirements of preparing students for life in the present century, computational thinking has been championed as a new way of studying computing. However, the resulting narratives are neither detailed nor compelling enough in our view to stimulate and inform general educational development and the specific pedagogical innovation required to enact computational thinking across multiple disciplines. The premise of this article is that computational thinking is something people do, not computers. We begin with explanations of computational thinking. We then exemplify the promotion of computational thinking in global educational contexts. For the effective implementation of computational thinking in interdisciplinary learning scenarios, to form linkages between subject-based domains where other ideologies have met with limited success, we discuss the critical complementary requirements of task design and pedagogy.
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