Computational Thinking for Every Educator!

Why should every teacher practice computational thinking skills??

The delivery of information in a regular classroom setting is achievable by any teacher. Any teacher can prepare the materials to deliver a lesson in a class with the right training and guidance. Any teacher can prepare a lesson plan, a good one, but only competent teachers are those who find a way to make it experimental for the students.?

An IB (International Baccalaureate) educator can provide experiences that promote students' agency and ownership of their learning. The inquiry-based approach used in the IB program, whether guided or open inquiry, is great evidence that the students are exposed to experiential learning in their classes.?

Experiential learning and the scientific method that is used in many disciplines can help the students build analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.?You can find many teachers in IB or non-IB program schools who are confident enough to deliver the lessons that they plan for, however, not all teachers are ready to take it to the next level. Not all teachers who have the competency to deliver a successful lesson are also capable of challenging the students and helping them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.?

Problem-solving is the known skill that the teachers and coordinators seek to develop for the students while planning an activity or a lesson in Math, Science, or other. But what about computational thinking? And why we do not hear Math teachers, Arts, or Science teachers talking about computational thinking? Why is it always limited to computer science concepts? Of course, it is not a skill that we only learn in coding language but unfortunately, computational thinking skills were rarely discussed in other disciplines.?

Throughout my experience in teaching coding language to students from KG 2 to grade 5, I was able to help them develop the process of computational thinking when they wanted to solve different coding puzzles without having to explain the steps. Students were actually learning the four phases of computational thinking indirectly with the experimental method. The best part is when we had to identify the bug in the code to figure out how to fix it. In every coding exercise, the students were encouraged to decompose the code, identify the pattern, abstract it, and then design an algorithm.?

Knowing that this experience has motivated the students and helped them get more excited to solve other puzzles in coding, I started thinking, what if I use the same strategy with the teachers when I coach them on how to use the technology? Normally, a regular IT coach would explain and model for the teachers to apply. My strategy was quite different to help the teachers gain more knowledge and experience learning the technology and about it. In other words, for every teacher who contacted me with a technical problem, I helped her figure out the solution by making her think using the same four phases in computational thinking. As such, I was able to evaluate how many of the teachers do not really acquire the right thinking process to solve a problem. And this is why I believe that computational thinking is not a limited set of skills that should be taught and learned in a computer science class. Computational thinking skills are skills for life. You can use them to help you solve problems from diverse backgrounds.?

Rawan Adawi, 16-6-2020?