Page 42 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education
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Chapter 2
C7: Relational Databases
C8: Human-Computer Interaction C9: System Development Lifecycle
Theme D: Usage in a context
D. The student should be familiar with the methods and procedures of project management, as well as the project aspects of system development (Schmidt, 2006).
It has been suggested that the 2007 curriculum be implemented in the form of a number of core modules that are the same for both senior secondary education and pre-university education, along with a number of distinct enrichment modules (Schmidt, 2006).
It is interesting to note that, although programming (the practical translation of “algorithmics”) is considered a dominant theme in CS by the CS community worldwide (Gal-Ezer et al., 1995), this is not reflected in the Dutch curriculum. Even in the best-case scenario, less than one quarter of the time available is supposed to be dedicated to programming.
2.2.1.5 Teaching Computer Science in the Classroom
In 1998 the major modifications made to education in the upper grades of secondary education came with recommendations for organizing classroom work in a different manner. The students were to be given more freedom and responsibility for their own learning process. Furthermore, obtaining factual knowledge was no longer to be the sole objective of attending school. Acquiring skills and competences became an objective as well (Ginjaar-Maas, 1994). This approach to teaching was a good fit for CS. Students, it was suggested, should spend a lot of time doing practical work and working on projects, mainly solving CS problems. IT applications, in fact, are found in a wide range of areas in “society,” and they are always about processing, organizing and communicating large amounts of relevant data. Moreover, IT problems in practice are so intricate and extensive that one person cannot solve them alone, even when the issues in question are relatively simple. Keeping in mind that CS education was not primarily meant to mirror professional practice, these five starting points for classroom teaching were suggested:
