Page 43 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Twenty Years of Computer Science in Dutch Secondary Education
CS education should be about students:
1. Learning about the field of CS through the acquisition of factual knowledge
and skills relative to the ways of thinking and working methods found
within CS
2. Learning to apply CS through solving CS problems, using the CS knowledge 2
and skills acquired
3. Learning to deal with interdisciplinary problems: learning to use CS
knowledge and skills in an interdisciplinary context
4. Learning to cooperate: learning to practice CS in a structured collaborative
way
5. Learning to reflect: learning how to learn from the previous four points
independently [...] (Ginjaar-Maas, 1994).
2.2.1.6 Assessment
These points of view are reflected in the way the curriculum prescribes assessment and this in turn influences the way CS is taught in the classroom. There is no national exam and all assessments take place at the school level in the form of a so-called school exam. A student’s CS school exam is a portfolio containing the following parts8:
A. Written examination.
B. Practical assignments. The student is to do practical work and come up
with a result. When relevant, the process itself is taken into account by
giving credit for the documentation describing the processes involved.
C. Project: system development. This is a larger practical assignment to be carried out in groups of at least three students. Each student is expected to
work for approximately sixty hours on this project.
D. Activities. Taking part in activities intended to provide a picture of the
educational and career perspectives in which IT plays an essential role.
The first version of the 1998 curriculum explicitly states that Part A should contribute forty percent towards the final grade, Parts B and C thirty percent each, while Part D only needs to be covered up to a satisfactory level (College voor Toetsen en Examens, 1998). Soon, however, this was all to change and nowadays the assessment is as follows: Part D, activities, has been removed. Part C, project, has become optional. And Part A, written examination, now contributes to up
8 For senior secondary education, see http://www.eindexamen.nl/9336000/1/j9vvgodkvkzp4d4/vg41h1jt- pgy4/f=/bestand.doc (retrieved August 2007) For pre-university education, see http://www.eindexamen. nl/9336000/1/j9vvgodkvkzp4d4/vg41h1jtpgy5/f=/bestand.doc (retrieved August 2007)
41