Updated OFSTED lesson observation forms with computational thinking prompts plus free course for SLT

Computational thinking and Creativity is at the heart of the national Computing curriculum for all pupils. It is important that all teachers, senior leaders and school inspectors evaluate the development of computational thinking in the classroom in a consistent and coherent way.

This resource, an example set of questions in evaluating a Computing lesson; and an example lesson observed by one of the authors, building on (and is a realisation of) the CAS working group who produced the CAS computational thinking guidance for teachers.

This document ‘The computational thinking guidance for teachers’ works hand in hand with the CAS Computing Progression Pathways. For the CAS Computing Progression Pathways by:

Topic: CAS Computing Progression Pathways KS1 (Y1) to KS3 (Y9) by topic ‘Unofficial’ strand:  CAS Computing Progression Pathways KS1 (Y1) to KS3 (Y9) by 'unofficial' strand 

The suite of materials also includes a PowerPoint presentation used by Mark Dorling, the CAS National CPD co-ordinator, when running computational thinking workshops; that develops attendees (colleagues) in the following aims:

1) Develop a shared understanding of computational thinking
2) Understand why teach computational thinking
3) Be able to share that understanding of computational thinking with your colleagues in school
4) Know how to plan learning opportunities underpinned by computational thinking
5) Identify computational thinking when observing lessons

It is worth noting that there is no correct answers to slides 4 - 7. The examples provided are from attendees to Mark's courses and designed to create discussion...

It is also worth noting that a series of videos describing the lessons on slides 29 - 38 are in the process of being created. The purpose of these videos are for attendees to evaluate the computational thinking mentioned by the speaker and identify opportunities (using the computational thinking framework) for further developing computational thinking in the scheme of work. These are currently being recorded and will be available as soon as possible. However, the authors of these resources would suggest that you not only use these video resources but also use your own lessons descriptions based on your classroom practice.

Mark has trained the CAS Regional Coordinators in delivering this CPD Course. The plan is for them to disseminate this to the CAS Master Teachers in their CAS regions so that they can support the teachers in their communities._ If you are confident and experienced practitioner or CAS Master Teacher who understands the computational thinking framework and are able to embed it into your classroom practise then we would welcome you to use this resource to support the community!

We will continue to develop this agenda – if you have any suggestion, please do not hesitate to have a conversation with any of the authors or email feedback