GGasCT: bringing formal methods to the computational thinking

• Ano de defesa: 2020
• Autor(a) principal: Silva Júnior, Braz Araujo da
• Orientador(a): Cavalheiro, Simone André da Costa
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Pelotas
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Computação
• Departamento: Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico
• País: Brasil
• Palavras-chave em Português: Computational thinking; Graph grammar; Formal methods; Education; Pensamento computacional; Gramática de grafos; Métodos formais; Educação
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS EXATAS E DA TERRA::CIENCIA DA COMPUTACAO::METODOLOGIA E TECNICAS DA COMPUTACAO
• Link de acesso: http://guaiaca.ufpel.edu.br/handle/prefix/6652

This work presents an alternative approach for developing computational thinking. Several definitions for computational thinking related terms are given in order to undo the terminological issues the area admittedly has, each of those terms are explored and clarified individually. The selection of the terms draws on a systematic literature review that sheds a light on the most commonly addressed terms in the computational thinking literature. A visual and formal language, the graph grammar, is introduced, formally defined and presented as a proper approach for fostering the computational thinking skills described in this thesis. Relations between the formalism and the skills are discussed, an educational game and a game engine are offered as examples of graph grammars being used in education, specially k-12. To guide the development and application of those tools, education and educational games theories such as theory of Flow and Bloom’s Taxonomy, and methodologies such as the ENgAGED and MEEGA+ methods are used. As results a complete and comprehensive framework for developing and assessing computational thinking through graph grammars is theoretically grounded and has its practice exemplified by experience reports of uses of the educational game.