Productive tensions: Computational things in preschool and school practices

This study contributes to current research on how designs for learning computational thinking (CT) are practically implemented in education. By examining learning activities in Danish preschools and elementary schools, we investigate how computational things, such as microcontrollers and robots, are employed in activities of learning CT. Data consist of video observations and are analyzed with a focus on tool mediated and situated activities. In accordance with elaborations on CT as a problem-solving strategy, we focus on how participants use computational things for problem-solving activities that appear central to the observed designs for learning CT. We investigate situations where participants employ computational things in ways that partly differ from the sequential problem-solving procedures of the intended task. These situations challenge underlying notions of CT-pedagogies that define outcomes as algorithmic solutions to well-defined problems. However, the observed tensions between intended task and participant orientations are discussed as potentially valuable learning situations rather than mere obstacles for learning. These tensions allow participants to imbue problem-solving activities with own intentions while still dealing with central aspects of CT. Thus, CT does not unfold as a universal and context-independent skill set, but rather as one structuring resource interlacing with other resources in situated practices.