| Computational thinking,as an essential quality of talents in the age of intelligence,has attracted wide global attention,and a number of countries have incorporated computational thinking into their education system.China has issued new curriculum standards for information technology education in high schools,but failed to set up courses or modules specialized for the training of computational thinking.The fact is that such courses and modules are developed mainly to fulfill educational objectives,rather than to nurture computational thinking.Under this background,school-based curriculum,as an important supplement to national and local curriculum,has become a new way to cultivate students’ computational thinking.Computer language is a global recognized training tool for computational thinking,and Python,as a programming language with simple syntax and rich expansion,is easy to learn but can provides students with progressive learning experience,which conforms to the programming language selection criteria.China’s Ministry of Education also suggests Python as the preferred language for programming courses.Therefore,this paper suggests that developing and delivering school-based Python Programming courses is conducive to nurturing computational thinking of high school students.Based on the above analysis,this research is carried out in an orderly manner,including theoretical basis building,curriculum development,curriculum implementation and effect analysis.First of all,based on a large number of literature,this paper streamlines the research status of computational thinking at home and abroad,defines the concept and process of computational thinking,summarizes theories related to curriculum development mode,and clarifies the school-based curriculum development mode used in this particular research.Secondly,complying with the curriculum development mode of scenario analysis,curriculum objective setting,curriculum content selection and curriculum evaluation,and with reference to the actual situation of Y school,a Xi’ an-based high school in which the author did her internship,the author created a school-based Python Programming course for high school students to improve their computational thinking capability.This course is project-based and consists of two modules,introduction and application,as well as seven projects.The author delivered all developed courses to 104 students in two classes of the first grade of Y school,and through three rounds of action research,rectified problems found in teaching process and curriculum design according to the steps of planning,operating,observing and reflecting.Lastly,the author adopted an internationally accepted computational thinking test scale to measure students’improvement in this aspect.The author also interviewed other teachers in Y school to find out their view on this course.The results show that the school-based Python Programming curriculum can improve students’ computational thinking capability,that students have made progress in five skills critical to the cultivation of computational thinking,namely creativity,algorithmic thinking and critical thinking skills,and their ability to cooperate and solve problems,and that the content and difficulty level of this course have proved satisfactory to teachers and students of the school.The innovation of this research is to,first,develop a school-based Python Programming curriculum for high school students focusing on computational thinking,improving the curriculum setting and education structure of Y school;second,deliver all developed courses to students of Y school,upgrading teaching activities and serving as a reference to programming course teachers. |
