In recent years, this approach and skills focus has become more integrated into school curricula and other non-formal club based programming.
There is no comprehensive list of countries that have integrated Computational Thinking into their curricula, as the implementation and extent of Computational Thinking education varies greatly between countries and even within regions. However, some countries known to have made efforts to integrate Computational Thinking into their educational systems include the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Scotland, and the United States.
Maker Education originated in the US, but the term “Maker Education” may have different definitions and interpretations in different countries.
However, some countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have embraced Maker Education and have implemented programs and initiatives aimed at promoting hands-on, project-based learning in schools. Additionally, countries in Europe such as Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands have a strong tradition of emphasizing practical, hands-on learning and have known formal and non-formal programs carrying out this kind of learning activities.
Learning processes that include Computational Thinking and Maker Education are not focused on what is “right” or “wrong” but involve a process where teachers focus on helping their students to think about the broader implications of their choices and decisions. Thus, teachers should give students opportunities to pursue their own independent interests with new skills.
However, next to having to adapt to this new mode of teaching, educators gain more freedom to experiment with their teaching and can adapt a student-centred approach in their teaching to improve their students’ learning experience This could be supported by a shift in the teachers’ mental model of the students’ learning, from learning solutions to increasingly harder exercises as an isolated set of skills towards seeing the students’ learning as an integrated and connected framework across several projects. To achieve this, teachers will often need training in how to successfully make this transition. Simply put, it is of importance to include the teachers’ view on learning while designing for educational transformation.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam from OECD has incorporated a creative thinking assessment in 2022. The PISA 2022 Creative Thinking assessment examines students’ capacity to generate diverse and original ideas, and to evaluate and improve ideas, across a range of contexts through open-ended communication and problem solving tasks. The assessment includes a new, interactive visual design tool. For the first time in PISA, some items will require students to produce a visual artefact, rather than construct a written response or choose the correct answer.
And planned for PISA 2025 is the Learning in the Digital World assessment which will provide international data on students’ capacity to engage in an iterative process of knowledge building and problem solving using computational tools. The data will strengthen our understanding of the skills and attitudes students need to become autonomous learners in increasingly digital education and work environments.