Page 47 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Twenty Years of Computer Science in Dutch Secondary Education
a good example: while teaching CS in the tenth grade, they encountered students
who expected to spend the lessons doing “computering,” by which they meant
doing unspecifiable stuff, with the Internet playing a major role in whatever this
was. When asked what they expected to learn in CS, they could not formulate a
clear answer. And then there were those students who already knew so much that 2 they didn’t even consider taking CS because they thought they already knew it all.
A solution to this problem was sought by providing instructive lectures (Http:// Www.informaticavo.nl/scripts/voorlichting.php.2006) to ninth-grade students about the CS course right at the very moment when they were set to decide which courses to take in the higher grades.
Another difficulty encountered came out of the very foundation upon which the whole CS course was built. On the one hand, this course was meant to be accessible to all students without any prerequisite. On the other, however, the students were supposed to acquire an overview of and hands-on experience with all aspects of CS. When it came to programming, for example, many students had difficulties with complex programming languages such as Java, as had many of their teachers without a CS background when they had been faced with learning this programming language during the CODI training (Tolboom, 1999). Information modeling using a CASE tool for FCO-IM11 (Bakema et al., 2002) was another stumbling block where many students went astray. Obviously, then, occurrences such as these have played a part in making teachers choose their own interpretations of the curriculum.
Looking on the bright side, both teachers and students appreciated this practical approach to teaching. The practical assignments were highly motivating, and proved to be very valuable by encouraging students to cooperate with each other and take responsibility for their own achievements. They made differentiation among the students possible. They were also illustrative of the practical nature of CS. The way CS is taught in the classroom is a fine example of the new didactic approach behind the modified secondary education system introduced in 1998.
One can get an impression of what is going on in classrooms all over the country by taking a look at the quite lively online community on www.informaticavo.nl. The growing diversity of topics found there is remarkable. A quick look at the collection of tests on programming submitted to the site, for example, shows that the subject is apparently being taught using Visual Basic, Logo, NQC for Lego Mindstorms, Java, Gamemaker and Delphi. The practical assignments submitted
11 FCO-IM stands for Fully Communication-Oriented Information Modelling
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