EXPLORING STUDENTS' COMPUTATIONAL THINKING FOR MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ engagement in computational thinking (CT) and programming with MATLAB when solving a mathematical task in a programming course at the undergraduate level. The data collection method is participant observation of three groups of three students presented with a mathematical task to solve. The study uses a deductive-inductive analysis strategy based on the interplay between the theoretical framework and the empirical data. The results reveal that engaging students in CT for mathematical problem-solving is challenging for many reasons: Lack of mathematical thinking (MT), insufficient experience with CT, and more importantly lack of deeper connection between CT and MT. Conclusions are drawn from the results to promote mathematical problem-solving by means of CT and MT at the undergraduate level. of three groups, each consisting of three students with varying knowledge in mathematics. The students were presented with a mathematical task to solve, while responding to questions in dialogue with the teacher on the solving process, by means of CT, MT, and programming activities. Open-ended questions were also used to gain a deeper understanding of the process. abstract, generalize