Leveraging Symbolic Representations to Understand Young Learners’ Interactions with Computational Thinking Concepts
Janet Bih Fofang, David Weintrop · Proceedings. · 2025
Computational thinking (CT) holds significant value in STEM education because it emphasizes cultivating problem-solving skills mediated by computational technologies.This aspect of CT enhances the educational experience for learners and can open promising opportunities for supporting and assessing learning with new technologies.Using a 14-week curriculum designed to integrate CT into fourth-grade mathematics classrooms using a programmable robot, we explore how young learners use symbolic representations to translate across contexts.We investigate the potential of symbolic representations in developing CT skills, including decomposition and abstraction.We present vignettes to show how young learners' use of symbolic representations in CT tasks can contribute to a deeper understanding of how students conceptualize and engage with computational problem-solving.This work advances our understanding of how integrating CT in early-grade classrooms can significantly enrich STEM education thus highlighting the importance of developing CT skills for earlygrade learners.