Physics Computational Literacy: What, Why, and How?
Tor Ole B. Odden, Marcos Daniel Caballero · 2023
Computation has increasingly transformed the way physics is both done and taught, and a growing number of physics departments are teaching their students to use computation to model physical systems, predict and explain phenomena, and analyze data. In this chapter, we present an overview of the physics education research on computation in physics learning environments, from the first documented examples of computation in university-level physics instruction to the present day. We separate this research base into three distinct strands—modeling and representations, practice perspectives, and computational thinking—provide an overview of key publications and results in each strand, and situate these strands relative to one another. Based on this literature base, we argue for the need for a larger-scale organizing framework that could be used to guide future computational physics education research and development: computational literacy. We outline the key elements necessary to acquire computational literacy in physics—material, cognitive, and social—and describe different models for how computational literacy might be achieved at a programmatic level based on published examples from the literature. Finally, we outline primary areas of outstanding work in this area for the physics education research community at large: equity and inclusion, ethical concerns, the need for additional professional development and institutional change, and the need to examine how computation is used in other areas of physics education such as experimental laboratory work.