Computational Thinking in Elementary School in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Where is the Teacher?

Abstract

Background: The term computational thinking offers a new approach in the field of cognitive science, through the premise of systematizing the steps of problem solving that it can be applied in Artificial Intelligence and to other sciences. Objectives: Offer to participants a continuous training in the context of computational thinking and evaluate the impact of understanding these teachers about their respective concepts and practices. Design: Of a qualitative nature, involving specific dynamics of action-research, the design of the teaching experience involves the elaboration of tasks, used as a teaching hypothesis, subject to reassessments and readjustments. Settings and participants: In remote context, through the Teams platform, with eleven primary and higher schoolteachers from Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and Angola. Data collection and Analysis: Data obtained through the recordings of the meetings and the proposals of the participants, analyzed according to the four phases of the reflexive spiral and the expansive cycle. Results: The contributions and involvement of the teachers were significant, and some proposals of activities conceived, two of them presented in this article. Conclusions: With the partial results obtained it is expected that the insertion of computational thinking in basic education develops skills of different abstraction, which helps children in solving problems in all areas of life, not only in the use of computers or for future computer scientists. The participants' proposals will be published and made available online, to contribute to teacher training in the context of computational thinking.