Introduction: Computational thinking in preK-5
Anne Todd Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Aman Kumar Yadav · ACM eBooks · 2022
ince Wing's (2006) article regarding computational thinking, there has been a dramatic increase in the focus on computational thinking (CT) in K-12 education.Computational thinking has permeated across K-12 classrooms, particularly at the elementary level.In a review of the state of the field of computational thinking in K-12, Grover and Pea (2013) described the research on CT as mainly focused on definitional issues, descriptions of environments and tools that foster CT, and assessment of CT.They called for a need to address large gaps in our knowledge around CT, including the cognitive aspects of CT and how CT can be integrated into other subjects.Several articles have provided suggestions on how to integrate CT (e.g., Yadav, Hong, & Stephenson, 2016).In a meta-review of 120 studies on CT published between 2006 to 2017, Hsu, Chang, and Hung (2018) found that most of these studies were situated within programming (n=31) or computer science (n=26) contexts.The other contexts where CT was studied included math (n=11), biology (n=9), and robotics (n=8).Many of these studies usually focused on students at the secondary and post-secondary levels.Although research on CT within K-12 has been emerging over the past few years, few studies have investigated the teaching of CT at the younger ages.The ACM and the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund co-funded this special research publication to examine empirically-based studies that focused on the integration of computational thinking at the elementary levels into a variety of learning disciplines including math, ELA, science, and computer science.We received 48 submitted abstracts after the call for proposal.We prioritized studies that provided empirical data and invited 19 authors to submit full papers.We then selected nine of the submitted final papers that clearly focused on K-5 CT from a range of subject areas (CS specific=1; all subjects=2; literacy=2; science=2; math=3).Five of these papers included PreK-5 student data, six included inservice teacher data, and one included