Page 168 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Chapter 7
to observe that since then, computational thinking has been spreading steadily, and that our work is gaining relevancy. If we consider the three steps constituting the CT problem-solving process — expressing the problem in computational terms, constructing a computational solution, and interpreting that computational solution in terms of the original subject matter (Barendsen & Bruggink, 2019) — we see that computational thinking is increasingly considered to play a central role in science education (Park & Green, 2019), and computational models in particular (Pears et al., 2019).
When we look outside the CS education, we observe that effectively using and understanding computational models does not necessarily require students to develop them from scratch themselves. Our work is shown to be relevant outside of the CS education as our findings already inform the design of instructional strategies for younger students where models are used to enrich the teaching of other subjects — as for example in the TeaEdu4CT29 project concerned with teacher education for CT and STEAM30. When computational thinking is integrated into the context of another discipline, students can use an existing computational model (for example about the spread of a virus) to run simulations, analyze outcomes and examine consequences — both scientific and societal. Additionally, they could be stimulated to discuss the assumptions underlaying the model and the model’s validity, thus effectively engaging in a number of processes associated with the modeling cycle and doing science.
This example is indicative of the curriculum changes expected to take place in the Netherlands, as discussed in chapter 2. Today, the stakeholders recognize the importance of learning computer science, as demonstrated by the curriculum. nu31 initiative where teachers and school administrators cooperate to modernize the curriculum for elementary and lower secondary education. This initiative intends to introduce a new learning domain Digital Literacy which contains four elements: ICT skills, Media Wisdom, Computational Thinking and Information Skills (Thijs et al., 2014). The Computational Thinking element of Digital literacy covers a number of CS specific topics, including programming. If the proposals put forward by the curriculum.nu initiative get approved and lead to the introduction of a new curriculum for elementary and lower secondary education, it would signify the end of a rather unique situation where the Netherlands found itself in comparison to many modern nations. As opposed to, for example, England
29 https://cesie.org/en/project/teaedu4ct/
30 STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics 31 https://www.curriculum.nu
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