Computational Thinking in Innovative Computational Environments and Coding

Abstract

The concept of Computational Thinking has been discussed for several decades and in recent years has been brought to the attention of the scientific community by Jeanette Wing. Her article presents Computational Thinking as “a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science”. The importance of Computational Thinking places it among the basic skills for 21st century, together with reading, writing and calculation, that every person will have to master, so it is important to teach it already in primary school. As the invention of printing facilitated the spread of the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) the technology must lead to the spread of Computational Thinking. This chapter will introduce the research on Computational Thinking and, in particular, the works on innovative computational environments, and will describe the situation of the education to CT in high school and in academic courses.