All primary school children in England are required to write computer programs and learn about computational thinking. There are moves in other countries to this effect such as the U.S. K-12 Computer Science Framework (CSF) for development. Debates on how to program and what constitutes computational thinking are ongoing. Here we report on a study…

Over the past two decades, the integration of computational thinking, as well as information and communications technology within educational programs, has gained importance. A primary obstacle to integrating computational thinking into teaching and learning is the level of teachers' knowledge, skills, and perceptions related to this topic. This…

Computer science core instruction attempts to provide a detailed understanding of dynamic processes such as the working of an algorithm or the flow of information between computing entities. Such dynamic processes are not well explained by static media such as text and images, and are difficult to convey in lecture. The authors survey the history…