Affordances of computational thinking activities in the development of spatial reasoning

Computational thinking (CT) requires spatial reasoning as students engage with multiple representations visually in various computational tasks, but the relationship between these two constructs is still under-researched. Further, recent neuroscience education research on spatial representations during symbolic mathematical cognition also indicates that spatial and numerical magnitude representations have overlapping neural representations. However, little attention has been paid to how CT activities shape these important neurocognitive processes. To address these issues, this chapter explores the relationship between CT and spatial reasoning as an important neurocognitive process. Our findings show that in a formal educational setting in Singapore, one specific CT activity on learning binary numbers possessed features that supported the development of CT and spatial reasoning. Our findings contribute to an area for further study in designing and implementing innovative practices to promote both CT and spatial reasoning. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.