Linking Computational Thinking and BNCC in Primary School: a qualitative study on the perspective of teachers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The incorporation of ways of developing computer skills in primary and secondary education has been a demand in some countries, and practice in others. Among these skills, Computational Thinking (CT) has the aim of working the ability to using mental processing to find out solutions to problems. National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) of Brazil, CT appears strictly applied to the curricular component of Mathematics and focused on the use of technologies. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the connections between CT and the skills and the subjects found in BNCC. These connections were identified from activities which were created and applied by primary school teachers. METHOD: A practical continuing education course was carried out in which two groups of teachers who had to handle teaching activities that associated CT to BNCC. During the course, the participants were encouraged to create practical activities to be applied in their classrooms afterwards. In total, 33 activities were built by the participants. Later, these activities were examined, and some parts were coding following a qualitative analysis approach. RESULTS: As a result, we found out codes related to actions, concepts and processes that were connected to four subject areas of BNCC. CONCLUSION: Most of the participants had a preference to use unplugged activities and applied different teaching strategies. Additionally, we concluded that the CT is characterized as being a multidisciplinary topic and can be associated with different components of the curriculum. Even having struggled in some activities, we considered the participants could foster among their students the "computational think".