GENERAL CONCEPTS OF COMPUTATIONAL THINKING

Abstract

Computers and smart devices have become, as ever, a fundamental part of our lives. Computers and computer-controlled devices are used in all fields, from medicine to mechanical engineering and textile production. One of the fields into which computers have inevitably spread is education, and one of the main conditions for raising the level and effectiveness of managing computers or controlling them is to make human-computer interaction as effective as possible. This effective and efficient process of using computers, known as "computer-like thinking" or "computational thinking", is regarded as a field that can support individual and social development and bring considerable economic benefit in our rapidly developing world. The basic concepts and scope of this field have been described in different ways by different researchers. Likewise, researchers have also put forward particular critical views regarding the potential advantages of computational thinking. This study consists first of defining the concept of computational thinking by referring to the source literature, then of analysing the aims of certain criticisms relating to this field, and of discussing the basic elements of computational thinking and contemporary research on those elements.