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www.pdst.ie© PDST 2017

This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Licencehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ie/. You may use and re-use this material (not including images and logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike Licence.

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National Workshop 2

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Session 2

Teacher Critical Reflection to support Pedagogies for Computational Thinking

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Schedule

Part 1 Critical Reflection I

Part 2 Think Pair Share Activity – Challenging Assumptions

Part 3 Computational Thinking and CS Pedagogies

Part 4 Examples

Part 5 Introduction to Group Activity – 5 Scenarios

Part 6 Group Activity – Lesson Design

Part 7 Presentations (5 x 10 minutes each)

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Teacher Critical Reflection

"Like other professionals, teachers cannot become effective by following scripts. Instead, they need to create

knowledge in use as they practice ... knowledge does not exist apart from teacher & context."

Thomas Sergiovanni,

Moral Leadership

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.ieIntroduction

Current thinking in the field of education strongly suggests that the most effective teachers take a deeply reflective approach to their work.

Dewey (1993) identified three vital teaching qualities that enable teachers to be reflective: 1. Open-mindedness2. Responsibility3. Wholeheartedness

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What is Reflective Practice?

A cognitive process and open perspective that involves a deliberate pause to examine beliefs, goals or practices in order to gain new or deeper understanding that leads to actionsimproving the learning of students.

Steven Brookfield

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Who needs to Reflect?

Critical Reflection is for all teachers.

Just because we think about our teaching, does not necessarily mean we are engaging in critical reflection. Teachers at any level and with any number of years experience may not be engaged in critically reflective practice.

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“Unexamined common sense is a notoriously unreliable guide to action” (Brookfield 1995)

Think Pair Share Activity

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.ieInstructions

1. Take the activity sheet provided and read page 1 in full

2. Use the space provided to give a plausible alternative interpretation that calls the validity of two (of the six) assumptions into question. (Everyone will be assigned two assumptions.)

3. Share your thoughts with the person next to you

4. Wider group discussion

5. Complete the final exercise (in your own time)

6. Read the references (in your own time)

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Our work does not take place in a vacuum and is not a value-free activity.

We have a professional responsibility to be aware of the external influences on our work and to have an informed view of their impact.

We need to be able to subject our practice to scrutiny and justify our approaches - to ourselves and others.

Critical reflection helps us develop a rationale for our practice

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Computational Thinking

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Jeannette M. Wing Carnegie Mellon University (2011)

"Computational Thinking is the thought processes involved in formulating problems and their solutions so that the solutions are represented in a form that can be effectively carried out by an information-processing agent."

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.ieWhy is Computational Thinking Important?

It moves students beyond being technologically literate

It creates problem solvers instead of software technicians It emphasises the creation of knowledge rather than the use of

information

It presents endless possibilities for creative problem solving

It enhances the problem-solving techniques you already teach(Source: Pat Phillips, NECC 2007, Atlanta)

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17

Simple Daily Examples• Looking up a name in an alphabetically sorted list

Linear: start at the topBinary search: start in the middle

• Standing in a queue at a bank, supermarket, check in desk, passport controlPerformance analysis of task scheduling

• Taking your children to football, music and the swimming poolTraveling salesman (with more constraints)

• Cooking a gourmet mealMulti-tasking, Parallel processing:

• Cleaning out your garageKeeping only what you need vs. throwing out stuff when you run out of space.

• Storing away your child’s toys scattered on the floorUsing hashing (e.g., by shape, by color)

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.ieComputational Thinking Concepts

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“What are effective ways for teaching computational thinking?”

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How to Teach Computational Thinking

Increase your own CT knowledge

Integrate CT concepts into everyday instruction

Use CT terms for everyday tasks

e.g. “Let’s create an algorithm for …”

Encourage students to formulate and test their own

hypotheses e.g. Google Public Data

Provide opportunities for students to transfer their learning to other situations

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Successful CT Pedagogies

Analogy / Storytelling

CS Unplugged- Kinaesthetic- Role Playing- Puzzles- Art- Games- Magic

Enquiry Based Learning (TEMI)

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Examples

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.ieCut Hive Logic Puzzles

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.ieCut Hive Logic Puzzles

Single Hexagon Corners

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.ieFarmer’s Problem

A farmer wants to cross a river and take with him a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. There is a boat that can fit himself plus either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage. If the wolf and the goat are alone on one shore, the wolf will eat the goat. If the goat and the cabbage are alone on the shore, the goat will eat the cabbage.

How can the farmer bring the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage across the river?

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1. Begin on side A

2. Take goat across to side B

3. Return with empty boat to side A

4. Take wolf across river to side B

5. Return with goat to side A

6. Take cabbage to side B

7. Return with empty boat to side A

8. Take goat to side B

9. END

Farmer’s Solution

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.ieA closer look …

Initial Position

Final Position

All Positions

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.ieHowever …

Goat cannot be left alone with the cabbage: f=g=c V g<>c

Goat cannot be left alone with the wolf: f=g=c V g<>w

10 good and 6 bad

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.ieFarmer’s Problem – re-stated

A farmer wants to ferry an alpha and two betas across a river. However his boat is large enough to only take one of them at a time, making several trips across the river necessary.Also, an alpha cannot be left alone with a beta.

How can the farmer achieve the task?

Solution: Take the alpha across, then a beta returning with the alpha. Then take the second beta across followed by the alpha

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.ieNoughts and Crosses

Move 1: Go in a corner. Move 2:

IF the other player did not go thereTHEN go in the opposite corner to move 1.ELSE go in a free corner.

Move 3:

IF there are 2 Xs and a space in a lineTHEN go in that space.ELSE IF there are 2 Os and a space in a lineTHEN go in that space.ELSE go in a free corner.

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.ieDevise an algorithm …

Pieces can move either by sliding into an adjacent empty square, or by jumping a single adjacent piece into the empty square immediately beyond.

The aim is swap the positions of the black and white pieces.

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.ieMagic Countdown Trick

1. Select 12 cards at random from a pack

2. Count them twice – 1 up to 12 and then 12 down to 1

3. Ask the audience to shout STOP when you reach 6

4. Start to countdown from 12 making a single pile

5. Place the remaining cards in a second pile (saying and

the other six cards go here)

6. Use the power of ‘ninja magic’ move a card from the

second pile to the first!

7. Count the number of cards in both piles

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.ieRemote Control Brain Experiment

1. Think RED! Select 8 random cardsThink BLACK! Select 7 random cardsThink RED! Select 6 random cardsThink BLACK! Select 5 random cardsShuffle and place face up

2. Shuffle Remaining cards and place face down (spread out)

3. Lift face up cards and separate into a RED and a BLACK pile as follows:- for each RED – choose a random card from the face down pile and

place it face down in the RED pile- for each BLACK – choose a random card from the face down pile and

place it face down in the BLACK pile

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.ieRemote Control Brain Experiment - proof

The number of RED cards in the red pile = the number of BLACK cards in the black pile

𝑅1 + 𝑅3 + 𝑅4 = 26

𝑅1 = 𝑅3 + 𝐵3

𝑅3 + 𝐵3 + 𝑅3 + 𝑅4 = 26

ሺ𝑅4 + 𝐵4) + 𝐵3 + 𝐵4 = 26

ሺ𝑅3 + 𝐵3) + 𝑅3 + 𝑅4 = 26 = ሺ𝑅4 + 𝐵4) + 𝐵3 + 𝐵4

2 × 𝑅3 + 𝐵3 + 𝑅4 = 𝑅4 + 2 × 𝐵4 + 𝐵3

2 × 𝑅3 = 2 × 𝐵4

𝑅3 = 𝐵4

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Group Activity

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.ieScenario 1

‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ is an

incredibly uplifting book. It’s the

autobiography of Jean-Dominique Bauby,

written after he woke up in a hospital bed

totally paralysed. In the book, he describes

life with locked-in syndrome. He did have a

way to communicate not only to write the

book but also with medics, friends and

family. He did it without any technology at

all. How?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Ek4ZBpshs

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.ieScenario 2 (Kinaesthetic)

Which cards do we need to turn over to make the number 13?(The cards are blank on the reverse side.)

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Invisible Palming

Australian Magician’s Dream

Scenario 3 (Card Tricks)

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.ieScenario 4 (puzzles)

A knight in chess can move either two squares horizontally and one square vertically or two squares vertically and one square horizontally.

Work out a route that starts (and ends) at the hotel that visits every tourist site exactly once

You must find a sequence of moves that starts from square 1, visits every square exactly once by making a knight’s moves, and finishes where it started.

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.ieScenario 5 (Role play)

answer = input (“Are you happy?”)

if answer == “Y”:

print (“Smile!”)

else:

print (“Frown!”)

print (“Thank you!”)

answer == “Y”?

print“Smile!”

print“Thank you”

print“Frown!”

True

False

answer = input“Are you happy?”

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Instructions

1. In your assigned group go to the breakout area

2. Read the scenario provided

3. Design a presentation based on the scenario …

- a description of the scenario provided- a demonstration of the activity- an outline of how the pedagogy could be used to teach CT concepts- suggestions on how the scenario could be used (or extended) to design lesson(s) suitable for LCCS

4. Next Step: Present back to the wider group.

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Presentation

What pedagogy are

you using?

What CT concepts

are you explaining?

Fís

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www.pdst.ie© PDST 2017

This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Licencehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ie/. You may use and re-use this material (not including images and logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike Licence.