【專題演講】 Exploring Computational Thinking in the Context of Computing Education 資訊教育背景下的運算思維探索 主講人｜Prof. Dr. Valentina Dagienė, Vilnius University, Lithuania 立陶宛維爾紐斯大學 瓦倫蒂娜‧達吉恩教授 【主題摘要】 Despite an intensive research history of around fifteen years in Computational Thinking (CT) field, researchers have not reached a consensus on the definition of CT. That is why researchers elaborate on various CT definitions depending on their investigations and hold different perspectives when applying, interpreting, and assessing the proposed CT concepts. CT involves solving problems, abstract thinking, designing systems, and understanding human behavior by drawing on the fundamental concepts of Computer Science (CS), Informatics or Computing. CT encompasses a wide range of mental processes, which are considered nessassary supplies for the 21st century children. However, despite the wide attention that CT has received, there is still limited strategies that can promote the acquisition and development of such skills. CT skills incorporate analytical thinking, engineering thinking, and scientific thinking. Thus, they could be positioned as a kind of universal skills for the modern student, and this is especially true for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. CT provides a powerful framework for studying computing, with wide application beyond computing itself. It is the process of recognising aspects of computation in the world that surrounds us and applying tools and techniques from computing to understand and reason about natural, social and artificial systems and processes. It allows students to tackle problems, to break them down into solvable chunks and to devise algorithms to solve them. The worldwide Bebras challenge on Informatics and CT is discussed as an example of connecting formal and non-formal CS education by using thousands of tasks based on computing concepts and applying problem solving strategies. The main goal of the Bebras challenge is to motivate students to be interested in CS topics and to promote thinking which is algorithmic, logical, operational, and based on informatics fundamentals.