Computational thinking in Norwegian teacher education: An analysis of mathematics and science course descriptions

Abstract

In recent years, computational thinking (CT) has been introduced into primary and secondary school curricula across countries. To ensure successful integration of CT in schools, it is imperative for future teachers to develop the necessary CT skills and thus for CT to be included in teacher education programmes. One year after the inclusion of CT in the latest primary and secondary curriculum in Norway, using a mixed methods design, this study aims to understand how and to what extent CT has entered the mathematics and science course descriptions. These descriptions are steering documents approved by the faculty boards of different teacher education institutions in Norway that teacher educators are obliged to follow when running courses. We developed a coding framework to identify CT keywords in 179 course descriptions. Our analysis revealed that the inclusion of CT in these course descriptions varied depending on the subjects and teacher education programmes. CT, primarily operationalised through programming, was more visible in mathematics than in science course descriptions.