Explorations on the Nature of Children’s Conceptual Change in Computational Thinking

Computer science is a domain with increasingly significant impact on our everyday life, yet it has had no established position within the general education in most countries. Computational thinking (CT) is considered an increasingly important skill in many frameworks of 21st century competence created by government as well as private sector players nationally and internationally. This exploratory study sheds light on children's conceptual change in computational thinking with an intervention-based research design utilizing interview and think-aloud methodology. The results indicate a large ontological reorganization in the framework theory of different phenomena related to computer science; there seems to be a fundamental shift towards a process point of view related to the accommodation to CT.