Week 6 - Computational Thinking

     This week's readings and presentations reminded me of how Jo Boler discusses as mathematical reasoning in Mathematical Mindsets (2016). Boler's work is linked closely to Carol Dweck's (2017) research on Growth Mindset, where errors are seen as opportunities to learn. Typical math lessons emphasize a "right" answer, and of course, accuracy is an important component of mathematics. However,the overemphasis on accuracy in the traditional math class limits the reasoning and thinking. Instead, students are overly reliant on rules and algorithms, losing trust in their understanding of number sense, ability to make connections and be flexible with numbers and operations. Programming, coding and computational thinking, on the other hand, encourages the student "to study the bug, rather than forget the error [and] errors when programming can help both students and teachers appreciate that failure is expected and seen as necessary for learning." (Computational thinking in math class, 2018)This is the mindset that both Boler (2016)and Dweck (2017)advocate for in their research and writing.


I decided this week to introduce my 5 year old to coding with Scratch Junior, one of the programs we discussed in class. Hard work and things that take much effort, tend to be challenging for her, so I wasn't sure how she would respond. I simply opened the program for her and she took it away from there. She experimented and naturally reasoned her way through. After ten minutes, when I returned, she had discovered how to create backgrounds, make characters move, record her own voice, make patterns repeat and had several different "movies" to show me. Pretty incredible!

 Here's a time-lapse video of the process.



Sources:

 Boaler, J., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mathematical mindsets: Unleashing students potential through creative math, inspiring messages and innovative teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand.

 Computational thinking in math class. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/about/blog/2018/computational-thinking-in-math-class

Dweck, C. (2017). Mindset. London: Robinson.

Shute, V.J., Sun, C. & Asbell-Clarke, J. (2017). Demystifying computational thinking. Educational Research Review, 22, 142-158.

 Wing, J. M. (2006). Computational thinking. Communications of the ACM, 49(3), 33-35.

Comments

  1. callybrownJune 18, 2019 at 10:54 AM

    I feel the same way about the 'right answer' in the mathematics classroom. I find that students have a lot of anxiety about starting a new problem because they're afraid they will do it wrong. There needs to be an acceptance of a wrong answer and how to debug to find out where it went wrong. Those are puzzles I love to solve as much as the problem themselves! That is such a neat video you posted of your daughter! It's crazy how much they can learn in such a short amount of time. Teaching resilience and perseverance at a young age is so important to their future development in computational thinking! Great work!

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