Comparing the integration of programming and computational thinking into Danish and Swedish elementary mathematics curriculum resources

Abstract

Computational thinking has become part of the mathematics curriculum in several countries. This has led recently available teaching resources to explicitly integrate computational thinking (CT). In this paper, we investigate and compare how curriculum resources developed in Denmark — digital teaching modules — and Sweden — printed mathematics textbooks — have incorporated CT in mathematics for grades 1–6 (age 7–12). Specifically, we identify and compare the CT and mathematical concepts, actions, and combinations in tasks within these resources. Our analysis reveals that Danish tasks are oriented toward CT concepts related to data, actions related to programming, and mathematical concepts within statistics. This is different from Swedish tasks, which are oriented toward CT concepts related to instructions and commands, actions related to following stepwise procedures, and mathematical concepts related to patterns. Moreover, what is most dominant in one country is almost or completely absent in the other. We conclude the paper by contrasting these two approaches with existing knowledge on computational thinking in school mathematics.