Page 51 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Twenty Years of Computer Science in Dutch Secondary Education
licensed to teach other subjects, but did not qualify for the Master of Education and Communication due to the lack of a formal CS Bachelor’s degree. Needless to say, this paradoxical situation did no good for CS education as a whole.
Another problem, probably the toughest of them all, and experienced internationally as well (Downes, 2007), is the perception of CS held by the whole 2 of the population, with education policy makers regrettably being no exception.
Two examples illustrate this unfortunate situation:
The Ministry of Education was looking ahead and considering the future of educational innovations and reforms, and to this end it set up an advisory board and asked it to formulate a vision for future educational developments. This board consisted of 33 members, mostly university professors, several secondary education teachers, along with a few policymakers and students. None of them had any CS background, which, in our opinion, is regrettable, because the advice the board presented to the Ministry paid scarcely any attention to CS education, barely mentioning it at all. The 232-page document mentioned mathematics 263 times, and CS 10 times (Society, 2005).
Another example was even more serious in our opinion. One of the new courses introduced as part of the educational modifications in 2007 is NLT (Nature, Life and Technology). It is meant to be a cross-subject science course offered to those students choosing one of the Nature profiles (see section 2.1). Even though the proposed NLT curriculum12 contained terms pertaining to IT and bioinformatics, CS teachers were not licensed to teach it, while the teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geography were.
2.2.4 Concluding Remarks about the First Decade of Computer Science
During the first decade of teaching CS in Dutch secondary education, the objectives outlined in the 1990s do seem to have been achieved. What CS education was going to look like in its second decade depended on the outcome of the discussions about the introduction of a national exam and whether to make it a compulsory subject, as well as on the repercussions from the fact that many CS teachers were not licensed and/or adequately trained. Furthermore, it was not yet clear whether the government intended to reform education in the upper grades of secondary education again, and if so, what consequences this will have for CS education. And, last but not least, we believe that clearing up the misconceptions surrounding CS and bringing proper attention to bear on its significance would contribute to a bright(er) future for CS education.
12 For a description of the NLT curriculum, see http://www.betavak-nlt.nl.
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