Siu-Cheung Kong Harold Abelson Editors Computational Thinking Education Computational Thinking Education Siu-Cheung Kong • Harold Abelson Editors Computational Thinking Education Editors Siu-Cheung Kong Harold Abelson Department of Mathematics Computer Science and Artificial and Information Technology Intelligence Laboratory The Education University of Hong Kong Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hong Kong, Hong Kong Cambridge, MA, USA ISBN 978-981-13-6527-0 ISBN 978-981-13-6528-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6528-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019931527 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adap- tation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publi- cation does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Preface Over the past few decades, Computational Thinking (CT) has gained widespread attention and been regarded as one of the essential skills required by those growing up in the digital era. To nurture the next generation to become creative problem-solvers, there is a growing need to implement CT education into the school curriculum. This book is an edited volume with a specific focus on CT education. The chapters were contributed by a group of world-renowned scholars and researchers, who pioneer research on CT education. To enable readers with various interests to advance their knowledge in this fresh yet important field, this book covers sub-themes that will be of interest to academics and educators, school teachers, policymakers and other readers. The sub-themes include CT and tool development, student competency and assessment, CT and programming education in K-12, CT in K-12 STEM education and non-formal learning, teacher and mentor development in K-12 education, and CT in educational policy and implementation. School teachers will be particularly interested in chapters in K-12 and K-12 STEM education; educators and academics will be interested in chapters in CT and tool development, student competency and assessment, and teacher and mentor devel- opment; policymakers will be particularly interested in chapters in policy and implementation; and readers, in general, will be interested in chapters in all sub-themes. This edited volume was funded by CoolThink@JC, a cutting-edge 4-year ini- tiative created and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and co-created by The Education University of Hong Kong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and City University of Hong Kong. CoolThink@JC strives to inspire younger generations to apply digital creativity in their daily lives and prepare them for tackling future challenges in many fields. Considering CT as an indispensable capability to empower students to move beyond mere technology consumption into problem-solving and innovation, with the belief that primary school education is the key in laying the foundations in CT to support future participation in a computing-rich society, CoolThink@JC edu- cated over 16,500 upper primary students in Hong Kong at 32 pilot schools through CT and programming education. The Education University of Hong Kong and v vi Preface Massachusetts Institute of Technology, being the co-creators of this initiative, have tailored the teaching content and methods for Hong Kong students. An independent evaluator was also appointed to conduct rigorous and evidence-based research to assess students’ benefits throughout the Initiative. Over time, the project team aspires to make greater impact by sharing insights and curricular materials with policymakers and educators in Hong Kong and across the territory. Besides, through intensive train-the-trainer programme, CoolThink@JC devel- oped the teaching capacity of more than 100 local teachers and equipped them with essential CT and programming pedagogies. The trained teachers formed commu- nities of practice to identify best practices and contribute to the continuous improvement of the Initiative. In addition to building teacher capacity in the pilot schools, the Initiative shared CT teaching experience and practice to local educators via organizing seminars and lectures. CoolThink@JC also recognizes the importance of parents’ role in promoting CT education. The City University of Hong Kong, one of the co-creators of this Initiative, reached out to parents and schools through workshops and seminars. With the support of educators and members of the community, the Initiative hopes that all students in Hong Kong and the young people worldwide will be benefited from CT education in near future. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to CoolThink@JC for its tremendous support to the successful publishing of this book in transferring knowledge and implementation of CT education. During the making of this book, we have planned for a second edited volume, which will cover more chapters on policy and implementation in different regions, and conceptual chapters such as different paradigms of CT education, unplugged activities, and parent education in CT. We wish to see scholars and researchers from different parts of the world to contribute their works to our second volume, so that our book series will be well representing CT education around the globe. We sincerely hope that every reader will enjoy and get inspired by this edited volume. Tai Po, Hong Kong Siu-Cheung Kong Boston, MA, USA Harold Abelson Contents 1 Introduction to Computational Thinking Education ........... 1 Siu-Cheung Kong, Harold Abelson and Ming Lai Part I Computational Thinking and Tool Development 2 Computational Thinking—More Than a Variant of Scientific Inquiry! ............................................. 13 H. Ulrich Hoppe and Sören Werneburg 3 MIT App Inventor: Objectives, Design, and Development ....... 31 Evan W. Patton, Michael Tissenbaum and Farzeen Harunani Part II Student Competency and Assessment 4 Measuring Secondary School Students’ Competence in Computational Thinking in ICILS 2018—Challenges, Concepts, and Potential Implications for School Systems Around the World ..................................... 53 Birgit Eickelmann 5 Computational Thinking Processes and Their Congruence with Problem-Solving and Information Processing............. 65 A. Labusch, B. Eickelmann and M. Vennemann 6 Combining Assessment Tools for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Computational Thinking Interventions ................... 79 Marcos Román-González, Jesús Moreno-León and Gregorio Robles 7 Introducing and Assessing Computational Thinking in the Secondary Science Classroom ....................... 99 Hillary Swanson, Gabriella Anton, Connor Bain, Michael Horn and Uri Wilensky vii viii Contents 8 Components and Methods of Evaluating Computational Thinking for Fostering Creative Problem-Solvers in Senior Primary School Education ............................... 119 Siu-Cheung Kong Part III Computational Thinking and Programming Education in K-12 9 Learning Composite and Prime Numbers Through Developing an App: An Example of Computational Thinking Development Through Primary Mathematics Learning ................... 145 Siu-Cheung Kong 10 Teaching Computational Thinking Using Mathematics Gamification in Computer Science Game Tournaments ......... 167 Chee Wei Tan, Pei-Duo Yu and Ling Lin 11 Mathematics Learning: Perceptions Toward the Design of a Website Based on a Fun Computational Thinking-Based Knowledge Management Framework ....................... 183 Chien-Sing Lee and Pei-Yee Chan Part IV Computational Thinking in K-12 STEM Education and Non-formal Learning 12 Defining and Assessing Students’ Computational Thinking in a Learning by Modeling Environment .................... 203 Ningyu Zhang and Gautam Biswas 13 Roles, Collaboration, and the Development of Computational Thinking in a Robotics Learning Environment ............... 223 P. Kevin Keith, Florence R. Sullivan and Duy Pham 14 Video Games: A Potential Vehicle for