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Establishing the fundamentals of computational thinking is essential to improving computer science education.
Since the Dot-coM downturn, the conundrum we face in computer science is how such a useful discipline can have such difficulties attracting students, despite continuing growth of the IT industry. We attribute the blame for student disinterest to career instability, but similar and even stronger arguments have long existed for other disciplines with little impact on enrollment. Recent data from the National Center for Education Statisticsa indicates the computer and information sciences conferred fewer degrees than either the visual and performing arts or the social sciences and history—certainly not majors that are typically associated with iron-clad career guarantees. Not surprisingly, CS enrollment also lags far behind that of other practically perceived disciplines such as education or business.
illUstration by Michael shUMate
Of course, the problem is deeper than just the issue of career trends. Through the years, despite our best efforts to articulate that CS is more than “just programming,” the misconception that the two are equivalent remains. This equation continues to project a narrow and misleading image of our discipline3—and directly impacts the character and number of students we attract.
In an effort to broaden awareness
a See http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d06/ figures/ fig_15.asp.
of and participation in the computing sciences, Jeannette Wing’s recent call for teaching computational thinking (CT) 6 as a skill on par with reading, writing, and arithmetic (the so-called three Rs) places the core of CS, we believe correctly, in the category of basic knowledge. Just as proficiency in basic language arts helps us to effectively communicate and proficiency in basic math helps us to successfully quantitate, proficiency in computational thinking helps us systematically and efficiently process information and tasks.
But while teaching everyone to think computationally is a noble goal, there are pedagogical challenges. It is
not enough to simply repackage CS1, or CS0, and teach it at an earlier stage, as many K– 12 programs already do. Perhaps the most confounding issue is the role of programming, and whether we can separate it from teaching basic computer science. How much programming, if any, should be required for CT proficiency?
We believe that to successfully broaden awareness of the depth, breadth, and beauty of computer science, and thereby increase participation in our discipline, efforts must be made to lay the foundations of CT long before students experience their first programming language. In order to pursue alternatives to the traditional
feBRuaRY 2009 | vol. 52 | No. 2 | CommunICatIons of the aCm
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