How Computational Thinking Can Become a Sensemaking Practice for Preservice Teachers in an Engineering Course
Gözde Tosun, Amy Voss Farris · Proceedings. · 2023
The role of computational thinking (CT) in science education presents an important challenge for teacher preparation, as CT and closely related concepts now appear in science standards in many regions.There is broad agreement that computation is an epistemic practice in science and engineering (e.g., Nersessian, 2008).However, supporting preservice teachers' (PSTs) understanding of CT as sensemaking practices in engineering design remains underexplored.We present a qualitative exploratory study in which we aim to support PSTs' participation in and recognition of CT practices in engineering design contexts within a semester-long science and engineering course.We present two themes that inform how CT became a sensemaking practice in engineering: (1) the design of learning environments in which CT is reflexive (Harel & Papert, 1990) with PSTs' own experiences in engineering design and(2) the central role of contextualization and addressivity (Bahktin, 1986;Sengupta et al., 2021) in CT in engineering education.