Page 56 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

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Chapter 2
encouraging “interaction between these subjects and other school subjects”, adequately training teachers, instructing higher education to collaborate in this regard and, finally; to “promote instruction in digital literacy” to help achieve the goals set in the nation’s ICT policy concerning innovation and economic development (KNAW, 2012).
Even though this report was received with great enthusiasm by the CS field, the government was still reluctant to initiate a curriculum reform
2.3.2.2 The Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development Report
In 2013, under pressure from the stakeholders, the government commissioned an inquiry and a report by the Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development (in Dutch: Stichting Leerplanontwikkeling, SLO) in order to assess (1) what is needed to realize a modern and attractive CS education in upper grades of senior secondary education and pre-university education and (2) in case it turns out that a change of curriculum is required, what should that change entail. The Institute appointed a team of three researchers for this job. First, they conducted a literature study about the importance of CS education, both nationally and internationally. Then they invited CS teachers to fill in an online questionnaire about their current CS teaching practice and about their wishes and suggestions concerning possible changes in the CS curriculum. Subsequently, they conducted in-depth interviews with a small number of these teachers. Finally, they consulted a large number of CS experts, not all of them involved in secondary CS education.
This investigation resulted in early 2014 in a report containing three recommendations and a description of four factors playing a decisive role in subsistence of CS in secondary education. First of all, the report recommends to design a new CS curriculum aimed at a diverse student population, varied enough to be relevant and attractive to all students. The second recommendation instructs to design a curriculum containing a limited number of compulsory learning objectives and a number of objectives from which a student can choose. Finally, it recommends to keep the assessment as it is (i.e. at the school level only, rather that introducing a national final exam which most other subject have). Furthermore, the report lists four critical factors which need to be addressed in order to make and keep CS a viable school subject:
1. quality of the assessment (with no national final exams, there is no quality control across different schools);
2. development of modular teaching material in order to provide for rapid advances of the discipline;