Modern academic disciplines make use of computers in teaching and learning. Computational thinking is a valuable concept for helping students to reason precisely about accurate and efficient solutions to a variety of real-world problems. However, what kinds of skills and programming environments do students who are not computer science majors need to develop computational thinking? Walker, in this provocative article, challenges computer science educators to examine the philosophy, goals, language, and delivery environments of courses designed to promote computational thinking for majors other than computer science.

The author argues that the curriculum for computational thinking ought to promote the logical analysis of effective solutions to real-world problems in diversified disciplines. The article emphasizes the need to carefully select the appropriate languages and environments for teaching computational thinking without discouraging students with majors other than computer science.

In spite of the ideas advocated for promoting computational thinking in this paper, a few questions remain unanswered about teaching and learning in computer science courses designed for nonmajors. Are the traditional structured and current object-oriented programming languages essential for teaching computational thinking? What roles should the available, easier-to-learn packages such as MATLAB, Excel, and numerous statistical packages play in teaching computational thinking? What roles should faculty members from disciplines other than computer science play in designing courses for promoting interdisciplinary computational thinking? How should computer science faculty members seek buy-in for computational thinking courses from other disciplines? I strongly encourage all computer science educators to read the insightful ideas on computational thinking offered by Walker and to weigh in on these questions.