国外计算思维教育研究进展

Advances of Research in Computational Thinking Education

计算思维作为21世纪学生应具备的关键能力,越来越受到教育者的关注。为了更好地开展计算思维教育,了解国外计算思维概念的发展及计算思维教育研究进展迫在眉睫。本研究通过对EBSCO数据库搜索计算思维文献,并采用"滚雪球"方法,共得到102篇相关文献,然后从计算思维概念的起源、发展和本质,教育内容,教育活动的实施及评价四方面进行内容分析。计算思维有算法思维和程序思维两种起源说;从算法思维、程序思维到计算思维正式提出再到实践中的计算思维,其内涵呈现多角度、交叉重叠且越来越精细的特征;计算思维的本质是抽象。计算思维教育内容主要涉及计算思维的过程阶段要素及其基本概念和能力,教育内容具有多样性。教育活动形式主要有基于屏幕的编程、制作和控制数字有形物及通用方法三种。计算思维评价分别在教育实施中评价、测试平台开发和评价量表上取得了一定研究成果。计算思维教育研究存在内容界定不清、学习结果评价重计算原理轻思维技能、课堂环境下的实证研究亟待加强、缺乏人文学科领域的研究以及教师的计算思维教学能力亟待提升等问题。

Computational thinking （CT） as a key 21st century skill for all students has been paid more and more attention by educators. In order to promote CT education, it is urgent to understand the concept of CT and dis- cover the development of CT education. This study analyzed papers on CT education which were published prior to March of 2017. A total of 102 articles were identified by searching within the specialized database sources EBSCO host and using the ＂Snowball＂ method. Four aspects of content analysis were carried out. It includes the origin, develop- ment and the essence of CT; the content of CT education; the implementation and evaluation of educational activities. The literature review indicated that there are two kinds of CT origin, respectively algorithm thinking and procedural thinking. The development of the concept showed multi-perspective, overlapping and more elaborated from algorithm thinking, procedural thinking to CT formally proposed and to CT in practice. The educational content of CT is mainly based on the process, elements and basic vocabulary and skills of CT. There are three types of educational activities ： it can be screen-based, involving computer programming; it can be used to make and control digital tangibles; it can be a more general approach to problem-solving. Furthermore, there are certain research results in the evaluation of CT educational activities, evaluation platform development, and evaluation scales, respectively. However, problems in CT education research also exist. For example, the educational contents of CT are unclear; the evaluation of CT learning outcomes emphasizes on computing principles but ignoring the skills of thinking; the empirical research in the classroom environment needs to be strengthened; it lacks humanistic disciplinary studies, and teachers＇ CT teaching ability re- quires improvement. In future, computational thinking will be integrated into all disciplines as a universal skill or a problem-solving strategy. Researchers should focus on educational strategies to develop computational thinking knowl- edge and skills of students. Furthermore, future research should explore pedagogical strategies for integrating CT knowledge and skills into teacher education curricula, and provide more accurate CT framework to guide educational practice.