Virtual presentation at EDULEARN16 Conference of preliminary results of the CompuThink study designed and funded by the EC JRC-IPTS. CompuThink aims at carrying out a desk investigation to draw a comprehensive overview of recent findings produced by academic research, grassroots initiatives and policy actions addressing the development of computational thinking in primary and secondary schools, as well as to highlight major implications for policy and practice.

1. Exploring the Field of
COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
as a 21st Century Skill
S. Bocconi, A. Chioccariello, G. Dettori
Institute for Educational Technology, CNR (ITALY)
A. Ferrari, K. Engelhardt
European Schoolnet (BELGIUM)
P. Kampylis, Y. Punie
JRC - IPTS, European Commission (SPAIN)
8th annual International Conference on Education and
New Learning Technologies. Barcelona (SP), 4th - 6th of July, 2016
European Commission
JRC-IPTS

2. SETTING THE SCENE
• The phrase Computational Thinking (CT) was used first by
J.Wing (2006) to mean “thinking as a computer scientist”
=> using an analytic and algorithmic approach to
formulate, analyse and solve problems
• Wing claimed that CT is a fundamental skill for everyone
=> “To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add
computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability”
• After 10 years
 over 600 academic and grey documents, many initiatives
related to CT BUT
 limited introduction in school curricula and practice
2/17

3. 3/17
OPEN ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
• Is it possible to define CT as a key skill for the current century?
• What are its characterizing features?
• What are its relation to programming and computer science, on the
one side, and to digital literacy, on the other?
• Should CT be included in compulsory education?
• How should CT skills be assessed?
• How should teachers be prepared to best integrate CT into their
teaching?
We present initial results of an exploratory study aiming to
contribute to answering such questions and developing the field:
CompuThink - An analysis of educational approaches
to developing Computational Thinking

4. 4/17
THE COMPUTHINK STUDY
Scope: To provide a comprehensive overview of recent research
findings, grassroots and policy initiatives for developing CT as a 21st
century skill among primary and secondary students
Expected Results:
• An extensive review of existing literature on the development of CT in
compulsory education settings and on ongoing policy and grassroots
initiatives to develop CT skills among primary & secondary students
• Interviews with policy makers, experts and stakeholders involved in the
design, implementation and/or evaluation of relevant policy and
grassroots initiatives
• A final report summarizing research findings on the impact of CT on
learning and teaching patterns, approaches and paradigms in primary
and secondary schools in Europe
Duration: December 2015 – September 2016

5. 5/17
OVERALL STRUCTURE OF COMPUTHINK

6. 6/17
THE LITERATURE REVIEW
It is based on a structured approach to locate, review, categorize
and represent information
• strategic search on a wide range of sources
 portals (Scopus, Science Direct, Scholar, Web of Science, ACM DL,
SpringerLink, etc.), with a combination of several keywords
 snowballing
 repositories and blogs for grey literature
 online courses and MOOCs
 policy documents and curricula
 grassroots initiatives
• literature processing
 preceded by a phase of inter-rater agreement, for consistent execution
 two review matrices, for conceptual studies and implementations
 documents divided into Highly Relevant, Relevant, Connected and Peripheral
• tag-and-map representation
 to provide a visual representation of key notions and their relations
 as a help to identify overlaps, patterns and possible contradictions

7. 7/17
SCHEMA OF COMPUTHINK REVIEW PROCESS

8. 8/17
DOCUMENTS’ DISTRIBUTION BY TYPE [1/2]
• We identified 569 documents of various nature, among which 361 of
academic litarature (63%), including the following types
10
38
158
107
41
7
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
BOOKS
BOOK CHAPTERS
CONFERENCE PAPERS
JOURNAL ARTICLES
MAGAZINE ARTICLES
THESIS
Distribution by type (academic literature)

9. 9/17
DOCUMENTS’ DISTRIBUTION BY TYPE [2/2]
• The grey literature (reports, newspapers’ articles, blog posts, videos,
OERs, MOOCs, curricula, etc.) amounted to 208 items (37%)
29
52
10
7
4
80
26
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
BLOG POSTS
DOCUMENTS
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
PRESENTATIONS
VIDEO RECORDINGS
WEB PAPGES
REPORTS
Distribution by type (grey literature)

10. 10/17
DOCUMENTS’ DISTRIBUTION BY TOPIC
• Based on the abstracts, we divided the documents by theme
• Documents were classified based on most addressed topic, but more than
one topic may be touched => not sharp division between groups
32
91
43
92
20
103
41
21
8
72
38
8
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
ASSESSMENT
CT SKILLS IN K-12
CURRICULA
DEFINITIONS
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
IMPLEMENTATION
LEARNING TOOLS
POLICY DOCUMENTS
RELATION TO DIGITAL COMPETENCE
RELATION TO PROGRAMMING/CS
TEACHER TRAINING & SUPPORT MEASURES
THINKING SKILLS & OTHER FIELDS
Distribution by Topic

11. 11/17
DOCUMENTS’ DISTRIBUTION BY YEAR OF PUBLICATION
• Documents retrieved for 2006-2015, plus beginning 2016
• Faster growth in recent years (2016 only includes the first 3 months)
4 6
18 18 21
31 34
66
91
136
30
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Distribution by year of pubblication

12. 12/17
ANALYZING THE DOCUMENTS’ CONTENT [1/3]
• Main trends
 definition and characterization of CT evolved after the initial one, yet
preserving its nature
 design and implementation of successful activities to introduce CT
with students of different school levels and types
 potential advantages of introducing CT in education so as to guide
students to think in more analytic way, tackle issues from different
perspectives, develop creativity and innovation
• Skills characterizing CT
 abstraction; problem solving; using algorithms and procedues;
examining patterns; collecting, analysing and representing data;
making simulations; questioning evidence; using computer models;
dealing with open-ended problems

13. 13/17
ANALYZING THE DOCUMENTS’ CONTENT [2/3]
• A mutual influence between CT and coding/programming
is recognized
 acquiring CT does not require programming, because CT is a
conceptual approach to abstraction and problem solving
 programming concretely illustrates CT, hence facilitates
(and for many authors is essential for) its acquisition
• Digital Literacy, usually identified with school subject ICT,
differs from CT, but is connected to it
• Implementation papers refer to concrete attempts to
introduce CT in school in different ways
 by emphasizing the development of CT skills (e.g., abstraction)
within computer science activities, mainly game development
 by detecting/supporting CT skills in other disciplines
 by designing activities for particular recipients, e.g. girls

14. 14/17
• School level addressed is mostly high school, but also
primary and intermediate are present
• A number of assessment approaches are considered, e.g.
 analyzing a portfolio of projects
 artifact-based interviews
 scenario design
 skill transfer to other contexts
still under-investigated aspect
• Teacher preparation and support measures to facilitate
implementation are also addressed (in limited measure)
but mostly not within implementation descriptions
ANALYZING THE DOCUMENTS’ CONTENT [3/3]

15. 15/17
CONCLUSIONS
• CT is a dynamic, rapidly growing field
 widespread interest for understanding the nature of this form of
thinking
 increasing number of projects, initiatives and experiences
 increasing attention at policy/curriculum level
• Big differences in the distribution of documents by topic
 assessment and teacher training are under-investigated
no real field development without filling these gaps!
• Very large variety of skills seen as part of CT
 a too wide and vague characterization risks to void it of meaning
no field development without focused characterization!

16. 16/17
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The CompuThink study is funded and designed by the
JRC-IPTS of the European Commission
under Contract No. 199551-2015 A08 IT
and jointly carried out by
• Institute for Educational Technology of the Italian
National Research Council
• European Schoolnet, which represents a network of
Ministries of Education in Europe
The data presented, the statements made and the views expressed in
this presentation (and related article) are purely those of the authors
and should not be regarded as the official position of the European
Commission

17. 17/17
CONTACTS
CompuThink study website
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/computational-thinking
For more information write to
bocconi@itd.cnr.it
anusca.ferrari@eun.org
Panagiotis.KAMPYLIS@ec.europa.eu