How coding encourages critical thinking?

 Dr Jyotika Pruthi

Do you enjoy tinkering with gadgets or fixing technology issues without even knowing the real problem? Do you enjoy developing your own customised games in addition to playing the existing ones? Do you wonder how a device responds to all your clicks? If you are nodding with a “yes” at this moment, its time for you to wear a coder's hat and find answers to all your questions. Coding is the process of designing and building a program to accomplish a certain task. As the demand for programming as a skill will continue to grow, it helps you to think logically and brings along many advantages for STEM learning. It helps you to approach different topics from a problem-solving mindset.

Strategies to improve critical thinking skills through coding

1. Start breaking down problems: Create mind maps to visualize your thought processes and think more abstractly about the problem in hand. Breaking down a bigger problem always makes it easier to spot bugs, brainstorm solutions and debug your programmes

2. Try to put yourself in someone’s shoes: Think laterally and always try to visualise the problem from a different angle. Do not limit yourself by your own perceptions and experiences. Think from the user's perspective and design a solution

3. Find bugs and debug the code: Try to catch bugs in different pieces of code and try to debug those codes. Coding gives you a chance to make mistakes and rectify them which in turn helps you to think critically.

4. Try to optimise your code: Code optimisation is any method of code modification to improve code quality and efficiency. Try to modify your own code to make it perform better as it gives you a chance to think outside the box. Be a problem solver! Be a coder! 

Try this activity!

Predict the output or error(s) for the following:

int i,j;

for(i=0;i<=10;i++)

{

j+=5;

assert(i<5);

}