Research on the Curriculum Design of the Computer Public Course Oriented to the Cultivation of Computational Thinking Ability

The traditional university computer public class emphasizes the “instrumentality” of computers, and aims to improve students’ operation skills and ability to solve specific problems in life. Teaching practice has found that the tool-oriented instructional design ignores the impact of computer science on students’ thinking quality and scientific research ability, which is not conducive for students to grasp the principle of computer operation comprehensively. Based on the analyzation of existing research, this paper put forward a Computational Thinking Content Framework that integrates the teaching of computer basic courses in university from a macro perspective. On the other hand, the teaching mode aiming for the cultivation of Computational Thinking was designed. Under the guidance of the problem-based learning, the instructional design is carried out from three levels: comprehension and understanding, simple application and comprehensive application to impart Computational Thinking knowledge, skills, disposition and strategy. Progressive design teaching activities are carried out around teaching practice and group discussion, practice by oneself, and comprehensive task, then evaluated by self-port and performance. Finally, the effectiveness of the teaching mode was verified, which brings the ideas and methods of Computational Thinking training to the ground. The research demonstrates that the computer basic course targeted at cultivation of Computational Thinking has a significant effect on improving students’ innovative ability and comprehensive quality.