A Definition of Computational Thinking from Jeannette Wing
March 22, 2011 at 6:50 am 23 comments
I met with Jeannette Wing yesterday, and we discussed the need for a good, authoritative definition of computational thinking. I told her about the CE21 Community Meeting where I saw K-12 evaluators looking for a definition that they could use to develop an assessment of computational thinking at the middle school level. Some of these evaluators were using the CS:Principles materials which made me uncomfortable — we designed those principles and practices to reflect what we saw as the core of computer science and as being appropriate for an advanced placement course. We didn’t write these to be a guide to what middle school students need to know about how to think about and with computing.
She gave me a copy of the most recent The Link, a CMU publication, in which she has an article, “Computational Thinking — What and Why?” She offers a definition and a rationale for the definition, taken from a work-in-progress paper by Jan Cuny, Larry Snyder, and Jeannette, “Demystifing Computational Thinking for Non-Computer Scientists.” She gave me permission to blog on the definition and the rationale.
Computational thinking is the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can effectively be carried out by an information-processing agent.
The article goes on to expand on this definition and offer examples. She says, “Computational thinking overlaps with logical thinking and systems thinking. It includes algorithmic thinking and parallel thinking, which in turn engage other kinds of thought processes, such as compositional reasoning, pattern matching, procedure thinking, and recursive thinking.” Jeannette pointed to a section of the paper on “Benefits of Computational Thinking” as being key:
Computational thinking enables you to bend computation to your needs. It is becoming the new literacy of the 21st century. Why should everyone learn a little computational thinking? Cuny, Snyder and I advocate these benefits [CunySnyderWing10]:
Computational thinking for everyone means being able to:
- Understand which aspects of a problem are amenable to computation,
- Evaluate the match between computational tools and techniques and a problem,
- Understand the limitations and power of computational tools and techniques,
- Apply or adapt a computational tool or technique to a new use,
- Recognize an opportunity to use computation in a new way, and
- Apply computational strategies such divide and conquer in any domain.
Computational thinking for scientists, engineers, and other professionals further means being able to:
- Apply new computational methods to their problems,
- Reformulate problems to be amenable to computational strategies,
- Discover new science through analysis of large data,
- Ask new questions that were not thought of or dared to ask because of scale, but which are easily addressed computationally, and
- Explain problems and solutions in computational terms.
This definition is still pretty high-level, but is still much better than having no definition. It’s a broad definition that encompasses a lot of powerful cognitive skills. We can move away from trying to draw lines between what is and what isn’t computational thinking, and instead focus on implications. What parts of this are appropriate to see at the middle school level? How do we teach these abilities? How would we measure them?
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: computational thinking, NSF, public policy.
1. iTec | Defining computational thinking | March 22, 2011 at 12:13 pm
[…] March 2011 06:08 Mark Guzdial's travels to CMU this week have produced another must-read blog post: https://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/a-definition-of-computational-thinking-from-jeanette-win… In it, he discusses the definition of computational thinking that Jeanette Wing and her […]
2.
Gail | March 23, 2011 at 2:37 pm
I made one of my objectives for my revamped “Introduction to Computers for Arts and Social Sciences” class to practice computational thinking. I feel like I am much better prepared to explain what that is and why it matters thanks to this. Glad you posted about it!
3.
gasstationwithoutpumps | March 27, 2011 at 12:39 pm
The CS Principles course looked a lot like a middle-school or early high-school class to me. It did not look like it had the level or intensity of other AP courses.
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gasstationwithoutpumps | March 27, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I posted on Jeannette Wing’s definition also:
http://gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/computational-thinking/
5.
Sometimes, Education is not about making it easier « Computing Education Blog | May 6, 2011 at 9:58 am
[…] on having their students write code. They explicitly wanted their Physics students to deal with “computational thinking” (their term, which may mean something different than others). So, the team created a nice set of objects, rather than the umpteen functions that students had to […]
6.
Instruction makes student attitudes on computational modeling worse: Caballero thesis part 3 « Computing Education Blog | August 2, 2011 at 10:15 am
[…] attitudes towards computational modeling in those disciplines, too. I’ll bet that this is a useful starting place for many folks interested in measuring computational thinking, […]
7. A Definition of Computational Thinking from Jeannette Wing « Computing Education Blog « The Fargo XO / Sugar Project | September 7, 2011 at 10:27 pm
[…] via A Definition of Computational Thinking from Jeannette Wing « Computing Education Blog. […]
8.
A nice definition of computational thinking, including risks and cyber-security « Computing Education Blog | April 6, 2012 at 8:23 am
[…] like this one. It’s more succinct than others that I’ve seen, and still does a good job of hitting the key […]
9.
Mathematics Awareness Month is Computational Thinking month « Computing Education Blog | April 17, 2012 at 8:08 am
[…] is going to deal with big data by hand. Their view meshes pretty well with Jeannette Wing’s definition, e.g., automatized algorithms. The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical […]
10.
By-Faith Fuqua | December 19, 2013 at 5:02 pm
When I was first introduced to the idea of computational thinking I did not understand the term fluently, however, after readying Wing’s article I had better and broader understanding of the definition what computational thinking is and how it shapes the classroom and world. Especially since I am not a computer scientist, or looking to be one.
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louisremi | June 23, 2014 at 5:11 am
“Computational Thinking — What and Why?” link is broken. Good read : )
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gravbeast | June 25, 2014 at 6:18 am
Reblogged this on Maddening mutterings and commented:
Should everyone learn to code? I’m skeptical. Understanding computational thinking seems more useful—particularly since this includes an understanding of what is and isn’t amenable to being solved by computation, in practice.
via @Grady_Booch on Twitter.
13. Teaching How to Think Computationally | Kenwood Academy HS | January 26, 2015 at 9:59 pm
[…] I had started making slides based on the most recent definition put forward by Jeannette Wing, as blogged by Mark. I started my section with this quote: Computational thinking enables you to bend computation […]
14.
The Productive Workplace: The Space for Computational Thinking | Graham Chastney | March 26, 2015 at 8:04 am
[…] Cuny, Snyder, Wing […]
15.
What does it mean to assess Computational Thinking? | Computing Education Blog | January 13, 2016 at 8:12 am
[…] in my book on learner-centered design of computing education is that computational thinking, using Jeannette Wing’s description, is implausible. There’s part of her description that talks about computing providing a […]
16. Computational Thinking - Videos & Papers by Jeannette Wing - User Ed - The blog of Ed Price, Customer Program Manager - Site Home - MSDN Blogs | January 29, 2016 at 7:17 pm
[…] https://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/a-definition-of-computational-thinking-from-jeanette-wi… […]
17. Computational thinking of digitaal figuurzagen? – KomenskyPost | March 31, 2017 at 10:34 am
[…] Wing [2011] https://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/a-definition-of-computational-thinking-from-jeanette-win… […]
18.
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[…] Guzdial, M. 2011. “A Definition of Computational Thinking from Jeannette Wing.” Computing Education Research Blog. 2011. https://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/a-definition-of-computational-thinking-from-jeanette-wi…. […]
19.
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[…] computadora para resolver problemas y realizar tareas de manera más efectiva (Guzdial, 22/3/2011, enlace). El enfoque de mi nuevo libro gratuito, The Fourth R , está en la importancia de agregar […]
20.
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[…] we could do studies in order to measure the value (if any) of CT. I blogged about definitions of it in 2011, in 2012, in 2016, and in 2019. I’ve written and lectured on Computational Thinking. The paper I […]
21.
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[…] what is computational thinking? TL;DR Jeanette Wing describes the types of thinking that we can learn working with computers and […]
22.
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[…] computadora para resolver problemas y realizar tareas de manera más efectiva (Guzdial, 22/3/2011, enlace). El enfoque de mi nuevo libro gratuito, The Fourth R, está en la importancia de agregar […]
23.
Metas en Educación Informal y Escolarización Formal: Parte 2 – MOURSUND AGATE FOUNDATION | April 11, 2022 at 8:36 pm
[…] computadora para resolver problemas y realizar tareas de manera más efectiva (Guzdial, 22/3/2011, enlace). El enfoque de mi nuevo libro gratuito, The Fourth R , está en la importancia de agregar […]