Description
While the growth of computational thinking has brought new awareness to the importance of computing education, it has also created new challenges. Many educational initiatives focus solely on the programming aspects, such as variables, loops, conditionals, parallelism, operators, and data handling, divorcing computing from real-world contexts and applications. This decontextualization threatens to make learners believe that they do not need to learn computing, as they cannot envision a future in which they will need to use it, just as many see math and physics education as unnecessary.
The Handbook of Research on Tools for Teaching Computational Thinking in P-12 Education is a cutting-edge research publication that examines the implementation of computational thinking into school curriculum in order to develop creative problem-solving skills and to build a computational identity which will allow for future STEM growth. Moreover, the book advocates for a new approach to computing education that argues that while learning about computing, young people should also have opportunities to create with computing, which will have a direct impact on their lives and their communities. Featuring a wide range of topics such as assessment, digital teaching, and educational robotics, this book is ideal for academicians, instructional designers, teachers, education professionals, administrators, researchers, and students.
Author's/Editor's Biography
Michail Kalogiannakis (Ed.)
Michail Kalogiannakis is a Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Thessaly, Greece, and an Associate Tutor at the School of Humanities of the Hellenic Open University. Since 2021, he has been included in Stanford University’s “World’s Top 2% Scientists” list, which – developed by Stanford researchers in collaboration with Elsevier – uses Scopus data and strict criteria such as total citations, the h-index and reflects scientists’ real impact within their fields. He graduated from the Physics Department of the University of Crete and completed postgraduate studies at the University Paris 7–Denis Diderot (D.E.A. in Didactics of Physics) and the University Paris 5-René Descartes–Sorbonne (D.E.A. in Science Education), where he also received his Ph.D. in Science Education. His research interests include science education, STEM education, mobile learning for science education, distance learning, computational thinking, experiments and simulations for science education and the use of GenAI in science education. He has published over 150 articles in international conferences and journals and has served on the program committees of numerous international conferences.
Stamatios Papadakis (Ed.)
Stamatios Papadakis
is an Assistant Professor in Educational Technology at the Department of Preschool Education at the University of Crete, Greece. His scientific and research interests focus on integrating EdTech apps in preschool and primary education, novice programming environments, mobile learning, and the application of generative AI in education. His work aims to enhance early childhood learning experiences through innovative technologies. Dr. Papadakis has been a prolific researcher and editor, contributing to numerous books and journals in educational technology. He was recognized for his significant contributions and was included in the world's most outstanding scientists ranking in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. This prestigious ranking places him among the top 100,000 scientists globally, or in the top 2% of his sub-field.