An Empirical Study Of Problem-solving Teaching Model To Cultivate Computational Thinking

In the era of Artificial Intelligence,Computational thinking has become a basic quality and skill that every individual needs to learn and master.Professor Zhou Yizhen,the proponent of Computational thinking,once said: " Computational thinking should be a basic skill for everyone,not just for computer scientists.Every child should not only master the three basic skills of reading,writing and arithmetic,but also learn computational thinking.".Therefore,it is very important to put the computational thinking s into practice in primary and secondary schools and to cultivate students' computational thinking in daily teaching.Some studies have shown that programming teaching is conducive to the cultivation of students' computational thinking,while different teaching models have different effects on the cultivation of computational thinking.Based on this,this study puts forward the teaching mode of problem-solving which is closely related to programming and computational thinking.As a classroom teaching mode which is suitable for both programming teaching and computational thinking training,it aims to provide practical reference for the promotion of programming education and the training of computational thinking in practical teaching.Based on the Python programming course in junior middle school,this study constructs a problem-solving teaching mode with programming problems as the direction and applies it to Python programming teaching.In order to verify the effectiveness of the teaching mode of problem-solving on the cultivation of computational thinking,this study adopts the quasi experimental research method.Two classes in the second grade of junior middle school are selected as the control class and the experimental class respectively.The control class applies the common teaching mode of lecture-and-practice,and the experimental class applies the teaching mode of problem-solving to carry out the teaching practice of Python programming for one semester.Through classroom observation,questionnaire surveys,Quiz test and other methods to collect data,using SPSS software statistical analysis data,analysing and comparing from the three dimensions of computational thinking level of the two classes.The overall framework of this study is: Chapter one,introduction.The chapter expounds this study's research background,research questions,research objectives and significance,research ideas and methods.The second chapter is literature review and theoretical framework.From the two aspects of computational thinking and problem solving,the literature is sorted out respectively.Based on the theoretical support,this paper constructs the theoretical framework of problem-solving teaching model with programming problem as the direction.Chapter three,teaching experiment of applying problem-solving teaching mode.Design the experiment,analyze the experiment school and the experiment objects,and determine the experiment process.Prepare for the experiment,select Python teaching content,design teaching activities under the guidance of teaching mode,and design the tools needed for the evaluation of computational thinking.Chapter four,analysis of the result of problem-solving teaching mode.Data analysis and discussion are conducted from three dimensions of computational thinking.The fifth chapter is the conclusion and prospect.Summarize the final conclusion of this study,explain the shortcomings of this study,and make a prospect for the follow-up research.The experimental results show that compared with the common lecture-andpractice teaching mode,the application of problem-solving teaching mode in Python programming teaching in junior middle school is a more effective way to cultivate students' computational thinking.There are three dimensions of computational thinking:(1)The problem-solving teaching model can more effectively cultivate students' computational concepts,especially the understanding of the concepts of "data" and "loops" and the application of the concepts of "operators" and "functions".(2)The problem-solving teaching model can more effectively cultivate students' computational practices,including "testing and debugging","reusing and remixing",but the improvement is slow,and the effect is not significant.(3)The problem-solving teaching model can more effectively cultivate students' computational perspective,especially at the aspects of "creative expression" and "problem solving",which further explains the relevance of problem solving and computational thinking.