Abstract
Since Jeannette Wing re-introduced computational thinking in 2006, several countries around the world have been redesigning their curricula to incorporate this approach. Furthermore, countries have been training their teachers on different strategies for incorporating computational thinking in other subjects within the school curriculum. This symbolises a significant paradigm shift in the educational landscape, one that even South African education must adopt for global competitiveness. However, within the South African context, scant research has been conducted on the competitiveness of preservice teachers in incorporating computational thinking practices in mathematics. This problem is even more severe for prospective teachers who enrol in the one-year postgraduate certificate in education program, as they have limited exposure to teacher training. The current study addresses two main aims: (1) To explore the experiences of PGCE mathematics student teachers regarding the incorporation of CT practices in their teaching and learning practices before and after participating in an intervention program. (2) To empower PGCE students with the knowledge and confidence to successfully incorporate CT processes into their teaching practice to impact learners' learning outcomes positively. The Community of Inquiry framework was employed in this study to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. The study followed a mixed methods approach where qualitative data were collected through the administration of interviews, and an observation schedule and quantitative data were collected through the administration of geometry content pre-and post-tests and the pre- and post computational thinking scale questionnaire adopted from Tsai et al. (2021). The study participants were ten (š¯‘›š¯‘›=10) PGCE students sampled purposively majoring in senior phase mathematics from one university in South Africa. The quantitative findings revealed that all PGCE students showed positive learning gains from the geometry content pre-and post-tests. However, the learning gains were relatively small, suggesting that they may not have been entirely due to the intervention but rather to their prior knowledge of geometry and the teaching and learning during the intervention. The findings from the computational thinking scale indicate both positive and negative correlations but in general, the correlation analysis revealed varying levels of stability and interrelationships among the five computational thinking scale dimensions across both pre- and post-intervention periods. The qualitative findings of this study indicated that PGCE studentsā€™ initial conception of what CT entails in mathematics teaching and learning was characterised by misconceptions equating it to concepts from computer science, such as AI, the use of computers in mathematics...