Page 37 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Twenty Years of Computer Science in Dutch Secondary Education
2.1 The Dutch Educational System
Figure 2 shows the organization of the Dutch Educational System (Jansen,
2007). After completing elementary school at the age of twelve, the students go on
to different kinds of secondary education. The VMBO3 type of school, lasting four 2 years, leads to vocational education. The HAVO4 type of school (senior secondary
education) lasts five years and prepares students for higher professional education,
while the VWO5 type of school (pre-university education) lasts six years and is
geared toward further education at a university. Secondary education ends with
national exams covering nearly all the subjects taught. In this thesis, we will be
focusing solely on senior secondary education and pre-university education. In
these schools, every student has the same curriculum in grades seven through nine.
While in the ninth grade, a student then chooses the curriculum to be followed in
the subsequent higher grades. In 1998, education in these higher grades (10 and
11 for senior secondary education; 10 through 12 for pre-university education)
went through major modifications (College voor Toetsen en Examens, 1998). It
was decided that the curricula for all existing courses needed to be re-examined
and that several new ones should be introduced, one of these being CS. Previously,
in 1995, the Course Developer Group had been assigned the task of developing a
curriculum for a CS course to be taught in grades ten and higher (Ginjaar-Maas,
1994). In this re-examination, all courses were categorized as either compulsory
(e.g. the Dutch language, physical education) or profile courses belonging to one
of the four profiles a student can choose from (Culture and Society; Economy and
Society; Nature and Health; Nature and Technology). In addition, there were to
be elective courses available to all students, one of these being CS. A student first
chooses one of the four profiles. Then, in addition to these compulsory and profile
courses, every student then takes one or two courses of his/her own choice, either
a profile course from another profile or a “free” course.
3 VMBO: Voorbereidend middelbaar beroepsonderwijs: prevocational education
4 HAVO: Hoger algemeen voorbereidend onderwijs: senior secondary education
5 VWO: voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs: pre-university education
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