Page 169 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education
P. 169

(Barendsen et al., 2015), Denmark (Caspersen & Nowack, 2013) or Lithuania (Dagienė & Stupuriene, 2016), today in the Netherlands there is no compulsory CS education at all for students in primary education. In secondary education, the Dutch students get the opportunity to enjoy CS education only if they attend specialized vocational schools (in Dutch: VMBO32); otherwise, the students attending senior secondary education (in Dutch: HAVO) or pre-university education (in Dutch: VWO) have to wait until the 10th grade to attend the elective CS course — and only if their school choses to offer this course and is able to find a CS teacher.
Considering the present situation of the CS education in the Dutch primary and secondary education — the actual situation at the moment — we can only conclude that it is precarious. We urge those at the helm — the policy makers — to take the right decision and bring Digital literacy into all of Dutch primary and secondary education. That way, all the students involved will finally get a taste of computer science.
7.5 Suggestions for Further Research
This research project took place largely before and partially in parallel with
the development of the new 2019 secondary CS curriculum in the Netherlands.
While its results informed the development of the curriculum — in particular the
elective theme Computational Science — the effects and results of the curriculum implementation are not yet examined. Looking broader, we see an explosion of
efforts to teach computational thinking — a notion for which Computational 7 Science is a prime exemplar. We therefore present a number of suggestions for
further research.
The study on the teachers’ initial Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) regarding Computational Science was carried out before the CS curriculum containing this elective theme came into effect, with a small number of teachers, and we portrayed their PCK at that moment. We suggest to perform a large in- depth study of the development of teachers’ PCK regarding Computational Science as they participate in relevant professional development activities and teach it, with the aim to explore how their PCK evolves as they gain experience teaching Computational Science.
32 VMBO: in Dutch: voorbereidend middelbaar beroepsonderwijs: prevocational education
General Conclusions and Discussion
 167
 





















































































   167   168   169   170   171