Computational Thinking: A Disciplinary Perspective

• Published in: Informatics in education Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 361 - 390
• Main Authors: DENNING, Peter J, Tedre, Matti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vilnius Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla 2021; Vilnius University Press; Institute of Mathematics and Informatics; Vilnius University Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; Vilnius University
• Subjects: Advanced; Automation; Computation; Computational Thinking; Computer Science; Computing as a Discipline; Education; Elementary Secondary Education; History; ICT Information and Communications Technologies; Mathematics; Origins; Problem Solving; Professionals; Programming; Systems Approach; Thinking Skills; computational thinking; CT; computing as a discipline; advanced; perspectives; professionals; history
• DOI: 10.15388/infedu.2021.21
• ISSN: 1648-5831

Over its short disciplinary history, computing has seen a stunning number of descriptions of the field's characteristic ways of thinking and practicing, under a large number of different labels. One of the more recent variants, notably in the context of K-12 education, is "computational thinking", which became popular in the early 2000s, and which has given rise to many competing views of the essential character of CT. This article analyzes CT from the perspective of computing's disciplinary ways of thinking and practicing, as expressed in writings of computing's pioneers. The article describes six windows into CT from a computing perspective: its intellectual origins and justification, its aims, and the central concepts, techniques, and ways of thinking in CT that arise from those different origins. The article also presents a way of analyzing CT over different dimensions, such as in terms of breadth vs. depth, specialization vs. generalization, and in terms of skill progression from beginner to expert. Those different views have different aims, theoretical references, conceptual frameworks, and origin stories, and they justify their intellectual essence in different ways.