Proposta de sequência didática para introdução da computação e do pensamento computacional no ensino fundamental II baseada nas metáforas de perspectivas culturais

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) skills have become more desirable nowadays considering digital technologies are becoming more prevalent in different fields of study and work performed by society. It is argued globally that Computer Science should be addressed in K-12 curricula in order to prepare students who will be working in a dynamic world and dealing with different types of problems and issues, including those which have yet to exist. In Brazil, the importance of CT skills is acknowledged by researchers, the Brazilian Computer Society, and also by the Ministry of Education, which has addressed computer science and CT in the latest National Common Curriculum Base. Thus, this work has the ultimate goal of creating a didactic sequence to support educators in teaching Computer Science to middle school students and fomenting the development of their CT skills through the practice of coding. To that end, we considered CT a foreign culture unfamiliar to middle school students to classify CT teaching resources being used in Brazil in the light of the Cultural Viewpoint Metaphors. Then, we used the classification as a basis to select teaching resources to be applied in practice. Finally, we conducted an Action-Research, which was divided into three studies, with middle school students to analyze the resources we selected. In Study I, we taught an introductory CT course to 16 students in the first semester of 2019. In Study II, this course was improved, and then we taught this modified course to a new group of 12 students. Study III was a continuation with 8 participants of the first study that showed interest in learning more about computer science and CT. Finally, we applied everything we have learned in the three studies to create a didactic sequence comprised of 15 lessons for educators interested in introducing computer science and CT to middle school students.