Instructional strategies to promote computational thinking for young learners

Increased recognition of the importance of computational thinking as a core skill for all students has led many states to adopt and implement computer science standards, with a focus on teaching computational thinking. Consequently, there is an increased need to prepare educators that are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and instructional strategies required to teach computational thinking. In this case study, we present instructional strategies utilized by informal educators (i.e., parents) to facilitate computational thinking amongst five-to-seven-year-old children during two activities (a no-tech and a technology-based activity). The data for this empirical study includes videos of the parent-child interactions during both activities. Through a two-phase coding process (deductive coding, using CT competencies to capture children’s CT, followed by inductive coding to identify the emergent themes for the strategies parents used to engage children in CT) we identified productive strategies of: Questioning, Modeling, and Motivation/Encouragement to engage children in five CT competencies.