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Launch of an advesarial collaboration - ASTRAPI

One of the main challenges for students, the future citizens of the 21st century, is teaching and practicing computational thinking. Computational thinking refers to the ability to think about problems and tasks in terms of steps and actions, in other words, algorithms. Defined in this way, it is a domain general skill.

The ASTRAPI project (ApprentiSsage et TRanfert Analogique de la Pensée Informatique) aims to answer the following question: can this skill be taught in such a way that students ( in primary and secondary schools) develop the ability to approach situations or problems in various domains (including new domains, that have not been dealt with in the course of their schooling) in terms of algorithms, and to transfer the skills acquired to new domains?

To answer this question, a Franco-Swiss partnership in the form of an advesarial collaboration has been formed. It gathers :

P. Tchounikine, Professor of computer science at the University of Grenoble Alpes
A specialist in analogy, E. Sander, Professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva, who has worked extensively on the issue of transfer of problem-solving skills;
 A specialist in cognitive load, A. Tricot, Professor of Psychology at the University Paul Valéry of Montpellier, who has extensive experience in the design and optimization of learning situations

The hypothesis supported by E. Sander and P. Tchounikine is that the algorithmic approach, inducing a form of organization of the action favoring semantic recoding (in addition to offering the possibility of encoding-recoding supported by teaching) would allow, through analogical processes, to invoke acquired competences for situations already studied, but also, for new situations. Indeed, the work on analogy shows possibilities of transfer between domains.

The hypothesis supported by A. Tricot is, on the other hand, that teaching designed to make students work via algorithms in a given domain does not improve their ability to solve problems in other domains, because according to the theory of cognitive load, what is learned through teaching is domain-specific.

By contrasting these theories, the project will (1) advance understanding of learning mechanisms, including transfer of learning, and (2) inform educational policy on the issue of computational thinking.

This project is funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France, project ANR-21-CE38-0015-01) and by the Swiss National Fund.

 

15 Aug 2022

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