Page 55 - Campus Technology, March/April 2020

“Computational thinking is a process that helps identify the requirements and steps for implementing a solution. It applies to many areas in addition to computing.” — Mark Frydenberg
CT: I know that you’ve been speaking lately about emphasizing computational thinking and problem solving as key skills for our students. Is this an area that needs more attention as we prepare our students for their futures?
Frydenberg: Computational thinking is an approach to problem solving that encourages students to consider several factors as they develop a solution. While an article by Dr. Jeanette Wing from Carnegie Mellon University drew considerable attention to the concept in 2006, the origins of computational thinking go back to 1980, when Dr. Seymour Papert at MIT first introduced these ideas when teaching problem-solving skills to children.
The main principles of computational thinking include decomposition (breaking problems down into smaller parts), pattern recognition (finding similarities between pieces), abstraction (generalizing things that are different from each other) and automation (implementing algorithms to automate a process).
The ability to explain a complex problem using language and examples that everyone
can understand is a very useful skill. Filtering out what’s irrelevant and considering solutions to related similar problems can be helpful when designing new solutions.
Prof. Wing says that computational thinking will be a fundamental skill that everyone in the world uses, as it can be used to solve problems, build systems and understand human behavior in ways that draw on the power and process of computing.
CT: What can computational thinking add to our students’ range of skills?
Frydenberg: Computational thinking is a process that helps identify the requirements and steps for implementing a solution. It applies to many areas in addition to computing: Project planners, data analysts, scientists, musicians and professionals in many other disciplines all use computational thinking skills daily.
Students can better learn how to approach solving problems. They learn to approach complicated problems by describing them in terms of smaller problems, hopefully easier to solve than the original. The idea is that by
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