#81: What is CT Integration and Why does it Matter?: Educator and Researcher Perspectives

Computational thinking (CT) can support students as they live, learn, and work in today’s technological world (Mills et al., 2021). Education systems at the district, state, and national level have recognized the importance of CT, highlighting it in district learning progressions (Coenraad et al., 2021), state mandates (Maryland State Department of Education, 2018), and national standards (CSTA et al., 2024; NGSS Lead States, 2013). CT integration has become a key mechanism for students to be introduced to CT skills (Dunbar et al., 2025). Yet, while CT integration is being used and researched at the classroom (Coenraad et al., 2022; Rich et al., 2020), school (Israel et al., 2022), and district (Coenraad et al., 2021; Dunbar et al., 2025) levels, what CT integration is and why CT is being integrated with subject-area content is often minimally defined or missing. In some cases, the fact that CT is relevant across subject-areas is taken as a given within its definition (e.g., Barr & Stephenson, 2011), and in other cases, defining CT integration revolves around the level at which CT and subject-area content are integrated (e.g., Coenraad et al., 2022; Waterman et al., 2020). To create more clarity for teachers being asked to integrate CT with their subject-area content and bound what CT integration is, we examine data from researchers and educators to explore two research questions: (1) What does CT integration mean for educators and researchers? and (2) Why do educators and researchers integrate CT with subject-area content?