Report of a Workshop on The Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking

摘要

There is growing recognition that computational thinking (and not just computation) has begun to influence and shape thinking in many disciplines-Earth sciences, biology, and statistics, for example. Moreover, computational thinking is likely to benefit not only other scientists but also everyone else-bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers, car mechanics, salespeople, health care professionals, artists, and so on. To explore these notions in greater depth, the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate of the National Science Foundation asked the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct two workshops to explore the nature of computational thinking and its cognitive and educational implications. This report summarizes the first workshop, which focused on the scope and nature of computational thinking and on articulating what 'computational thinking for everyone' might mean. A second workshop, to be held sometime later, will focus on the cognitive and educational dimensions of computational thinking. Although this document was prepared by the Committee for the Workshops on Computational Thinking based on workshop presentations and discussions, it does not reflect consensus views of the committee. Under NRC guidelines for conducting workshops and developing report summaries, workshop activities do not seek consensus and workshop summaries (such as the present volume) cannot be said to represent 'an NRC view' on the subject at hand. This workshop report reveals the plethora of perspectives on computational thinking, raises issues for the follow-on workshop concerned with pedagogy, and suggests the need for the field to build consensus on the scope, nature, and structure of computational thinking. The present report contains a digest of both presentations and discussion.