Computational thinking in the service of mathematics education: The case of animating programmable 3D models in MaLT2

The scientific community has recognized that CT goes beyond computer science and should be meaningfully integrated across the curriculum. However, regarding math education most approaches, studies and tools are focusing on programming concepts in math-covered tasks, leaving high-level mathematical processes and competences in the background. Moreover, most research focuses on primary education, leaving gaps in understanding CT’s role in secondary mathematics. This paper proposes an approach that leverages programming to enhance Computational Thinking in the service of mathematical learning rather than the other way around. Through an empirical study with secondary students using MaLT2, an online 3D Turtle Geometry modeler, we investigate how CT can support mathematization, offering insights into the intersection of CT and mathematical reasoning. We explore different computational solutions to math problems, given by secondary students, discussing whether they are following a math-oriented or CS-oriented approach. The results showed that CT practices could be used in different ways for solving the same problem computationally and depending on the approach they could promote either mathematical meaning making or computer science meaning making.