How are computer science lessons in different countries of the world: 5 key findings
It is often thought that programming is something complex and not childish. However, this, in principle, effortlessly refutes a large number of commercial companies - from Apple (Swift Playground) and up to Tynker, targeted at children from 5 years. Well, or take the same Code.org - here you can find courses for children 4+.
But this is all about additional education. And what happens at this time in schools? We have been engaged in teaching our children in primary and secondary schools for almost 2 years in our company, and during this time we have undergone many transformations and reread a large number of Talmuds. And now we want to share the main conclusions drawn ...
But first, a few points about the whole post:
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The greatest amount of data as always - at the level of Europe and the USA. Therefore, the findings on them more. Computer science lesson is a general definition that we use with reservation. Because the names of the subject vary greatly depending on the country and carry different semantic meaning.
The author’s area of ​​expertise largely lies in the field of teaching children of primary school age (grades 3-7), so more conclusions are being made in this area.
Now, let's move on to the actual conclusions:
1) Computer Science is not a lesson in using Microsoft Word / Excel / Paint. This is a study of the principles of algorithms, computational thinking and such fundamentals that do not change. Almost all countries where Computer Science is implemented at the elementary school level (for example, Estonia, France, Israel, Spain, Slovakia, Great Britain, Finland, Poland, Portugal, partially the USA, India, China, Australia), made one simple discovery - learning software is a paradigm shift that occurred during the popularization of Microsoft Office and resulted in the fact that the computer science teacher no longer needed to be an IT professional, it was enough to be a professional user. But the software has a feature to become obsolete, and being a “user” it is difficult to quickly re-learn to be a “creator”.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: the Computer Science program in the UK schools (taken as a specific example) consists of a set of blocks - algorithms, programming and development, data and their display, hardware and processing, communications and networks, information technologies.
2) “Computer science is the same subject as physics and chemistry and should be studied by children from school to school. In general, there is such a special feature in a number of countries - they have really experienced a radical change in attitude towards the subject. You should agree that computer science in the CIS is in most cases one lesson per week, and the level of the subject and its status dangle somewhere along with physical education, a lesson in work / technology, music and dance.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: here there is no universal answer. Somewhere, the state changed the requirements for teachers of the subject. For example, in Israel - all teachers retrained, began to demand that the teacher was not just a good user of office programs, but also really knew Computer Science. Somewhere increased the number of hours.
3) If you start to study Computer Science in elementary school - you can significantly reduce the level of gender inequality in IT. This is due to the fact that when it comes to programming in high school, children are already forming the idea that “for girls” and “for boys”. And usually computer science falls into the “for boys” category. At the same time, if you start giving the subject in 3-4 classes, then this problem can be avoided (well, or significantly reduced), since children who have previously learned about programming can accept it later and less stereotype.
What made on the basis of this conclusion: taken into account when developing the program. Often the set of exercises provided is gender-neutral. It does not look like Lego, which are separately blue - boys and separately pink and with ponies - for girls.
4) Computer Science does not necessarily mean sitting at a computer. Often we do not represent it-shnik otherwise than at the computer. And also preferably with glasses. And, in a bad scenario, also hunched over. But learning computational thinking is, first of all, learning the principles of thinking and only secondarily - at the computer. Oddly enough, Australia and New Zealand have the most achievements in this direction - they were involved in the development of such a direction as CS unplugged - skills development exercises in the subject that are performed without a computer. There is another deep thought - technology often distracts. Therefore, for example, presentations are advised to cook first on a piece of paper / in the head, summing up the main thoughts and their order, and only then use the power point and whatever else. So with the study of Computer Science - you should first understand the principles, and then get distracted by technology.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: the tasks for the elementary school and a part of the tasks for the secondary are understanding tasks that are performed without a computer. In some cases, this approach also additionally allows you to optimize the situation with the lack of equipment in the classes.
5) The task of Computer Science is not to make you a programmer, but to teach you how to think. And even more important task - to bring it to the parent. In general, for most countries where the introduction of the subject in the schedule was successful, one characteristic is characteristic - they communicated a lot with teachers, directors and parents. So, let me cite the example of the UK again (in general, I consider it to be one of the most exemplary exemplary countries) - as part of the introduction of the new course, large television channels were involved, and there was active support at the level of articles “How can you help your child learn computer science?” "," What is important to know for yourself "and so on.
What they did on the basis of this conclusion: they built a meticulous and detailed communication strategy for the introduction of the subject.
That's all what I wanted to share for the beginning. And if there are interested parties - write. I can share all those materials and links on this topic that are.
But this is all about additional education. And what happens at this time in schools? We have been engaged in teaching our children in primary and secondary schools for almost 2 years in our company, and during this time we have undergone many transformations and reread a large number of Talmuds. And now we want to share the main conclusions drawn ...
But first, a few points about the whole post:
')
The greatest amount of data as always - at the level of Europe and the USA. Therefore, the findings on them more. Computer science lesson is a general definition that we use with reservation. Because the names of the subject vary greatly depending on the country and carry different semantic meaning.
The author’s area of ​​expertise largely lies in the field of teaching children of primary school age (grades 3-7), so more conclusions are being made in this area.
Now, let's move on to the actual conclusions:
1) Computer Science is not a lesson in using Microsoft Word / Excel / Paint. This is a study of the principles of algorithms, computational thinking and such fundamentals that do not change. Almost all countries where Computer Science is implemented at the elementary school level (for example, Estonia, France, Israel, Spain, Slovakia, Great Britain, Finland, Poland, Portugal, partially the USA, India, China, Australia), made one simple discovery - learning software is a paradigm shift that occurred during the popularization of Microsoft Office and resulted in the fact that the computer science teacher no longer needed to be an IT professional, it was enough to be a professional user. But the software has a feature to become obsolete, and being a “user” it is difficult to quickly re-learn to be a “creator”.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: the Computer Science program in the UK schools (taken as a specific example) consists of a set of blocks - algorithms, programming and development, data and their display, hardware and processing, communications and networks, information technologies.
2) “Computer science is the same subject as physics and chemistry and should be studied by children from school to school. In general, there is such a special feature in a number of countries - they have really experienced a radical change in attitude towards the subject. You should agree that computer science in the CIS is in most cases one lesson per week, and the level of the subject and its status dangle somewhere along with physical education, a lesson in work / technology, music and dance.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: here there is no universal answer. Somewhere, the state changed the requirements for teachers of the subject. For example, in Israel - all teachers retrained, began to demand that the teacher was not just a good user of office programs, but also really knew Computer Science. Somewhere increased the number of hours.
3) If you start to study Computer Science in elementary school - you can significantly reduce the level of gender inequality in IT. This is due to the fact that when it comes to programming in high school, children are already forming the idea that “for girls” and “for boys”. And usually computer science falls into the “for boys” category. At the same time, if you start giving the subject in 3-4 classes, then this problem can be avoided (well, or significantly reduced), since children who have previously learned about programming can accept it later and less stereotype.
What made on the basis of this conclusion: taken into account when developing the program. Often the set of exercises provided is gender-neutral. It does not look like Lego, which are separately blue - boys and separately pink and with ponies - for girls.
4) Computer Science does not necessarily mean sitting at a computer. Often we do not represent it-shnik otherwise than at the computer. And also preferably with glasses. And, in a bad scenario, also hunched over. But learning computational thinking is, first of all, learning the principles of thinking and only secondarily - at the computer. Oddly enough, Australia and New Zealand have the most achievements in this direction - they were involved in the development of such a direction as CS unplugged - skills development exercises in the subject that are performed without a computer. There is another deep thought - technology often distracts. Therefore, for example, presentations are advised to cook first on a piece of paper / in the head, summing up the main thoughts and their order, and only then use the power point and whatever else. So with the study of Computer Science - you should first understand the principles, and then get distracted by technology.
What was done on the basis of this conclusion: the tasks for the elementary school and a part of the tasks for the secondary are understanding tasks that are performed without a computer. In some cases, this approach also additionally allows you to optimize the situation with the lack of equipment in the classes.
5) The task of Computer Science is not to make you a programmer, but to teach you how to think. And even more important task - to bring it to the parent. In general, for most countries where the introduction of the subject in the schedule was successful, one characteristic is characteristic - they communicated a lot with teachers, directors and parents. So, let me cite the example of the UK again (in general, I consider it to be one of the most exemplary exemplary countries) - as part of the introduction of the new course, large television channels were involved, and there was active support at the level of articles “How can you help your child learn computer science?” "," What is important to know for yourself "and so on.
What they did on the basis of this conclusion: they built a meticulous and detailed communication strategy for the introduction of the subject.
That's all what I wanted to share for the beginning. And if there are interested parties - write. I can share all those materials and links on this topic that are.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/314372/
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