HR4RS stamp
Nora Fernandez Fernandez
A working group, coordinated by the professor of Computer Languages and Systems of the URJC, Ángel Velázquez, has prepared the report titled “CODDII/SCIE Report on teacher training and didactics of Computer Science in pre-university stages”.
The group is made up of 4 experts from the Spanish Computer Science Society (SCIE) and the Coordinator of Deans and Directors of Computer Engineering (CODDII). Likewise, the activity is integrated within the company Informatics Europe, which works throughout the continent in this matter.
The main objective of the report is to give an overview of some issues that must be addressed if you want to include Computer Science in the XNUMXst century school curriculum.
As Ángel Velázquez tells us, “the first point is to emphasize that, as in other disciplines, there is a didactics of computer science, something that not everyone knows”. "Despite being a younger discipline compared to others, such as mathematics, little by little a didactics of computer science has been developed that, if you want to teach it well, you have to follow it," he adds.
For this, a first issue is the scarce or non-existent training of teachers in Computer Science in general, and programming in particular, "a fact that is aggravated, especially, in Early Childhood and Primary Education," says Velázquez.
According to the teacher, "teachers must not only develop basic skills in Computer Science, but also their associated pedagogical and technological knowledge." This is where the true value of the report lies, in training teachers, “who must be taught two types of knowledge: on the one hand, content knowledge and, on the other, this pedagogical knowledge. That is, what they have to know and how they have to teach it to the students”, he comments.
As with mathematics, correct teaching begins, on many occasions, "with approaches to the discipline based on games, also using objects... that is, not making it as abstract as it is in itself. There are also more accessible programming languages and concepts with which one should start”, explains Velázquez.
The addressees of the report are the academic authorities of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, but also politicians, the media, educators, teachers and society in general.
Thus, the report develops various aspects of pedagogical knowledge typical of programming, such as student misconceptions, instructional considerations, team learning, specific exercises, and correction of practices. Finally, the report contains several reflections on the teaching of education and nine proposals for a successful future implementation.
The report is located available on the websites of the SAW and CODD II.