The changing face of computational thinking in Spanish educational legislation

Abstract

In the past two decades, a movement has emerged advocating for the integration of deep digital competencies into the school curriculum. Depending on the country, these initiatives have been implemented under various labels, including “informatics,” “programming,” and “computational thinking.” The meaning of these terms is not always clear to society, particularly in the case of computational thinking, as even its proponents acknowledge the absence of a precise definition. This paper examines the use of computational thinking in the most recent educational reform in Spain, which envisions its inclusion from Early Childhood Education through to Upper Secondary Education. The findings reveal that the legislation does not employ computational thinking in a coherent manner; rather, its interpretation varies according to the subject area. The analysis of how computational thinking is applied allows for the identification of four distinct roles: superfluous, substitutive, subordinate, and obscuring. Each of these roles is presented in this paper, supported by excerpts from the legislation. In conclusion, it is suggested that future educational reforms replace the ambiguous framework of computational thinking with the more precise framework of informatics.