Is "Physical Education and Computational Thinking" an Oxymoron?

The term computational thinking (CT) was proposed in 2006 by Jeannette M. Wing, and it refers to a system of thinking skills, processes and approaches to solving complex problems, using concepts from computer science. These skills are important to teachers in solving problems they encounter regularly and for being able to teach them to their young students, with the hope that they will apply them in their adulthood. In most instances where CT is taught, teachers use computers and teach some sort of programming language such as Scratch, which enables their students to learn various problem-solving strategies. However, these thinking skills can be used in non-computer science disciplines and contexts.

One such discipline is Physical Education (PE). Although it seems contrary to its essence of being physically active, the objective of this presentation is to show that CT can and should be embedded within PE classes and the PE teachers should be trained accordingly. During the last several years our college developed a unique approach to preparing pre-service teachers for the K12 education system in Israel. One of the foundations of this approach is a cross-discipline and cross-faculty mandatory course in CT. However, the one teacher preparatory discipline that repeatedly exhibited a need to adapt the way the course is taught was PE. In the last two years, CT was taught with a vast emphasis on PE peer teaching experiences, where CT was embedded in an unplugged mode. The presentation will describe this unique course in detail and provide reflections of the course participants pertaining to the integration of CT into the PE classroom and the work of the physical educator.