Page 90 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

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Chapter 4
term parameter in physics or mathematics differs from the meaning in a simulation model and that might be confusing. Students who follow physics course are already familiar with models, as opposed to students in humanities tracks. Teacher 2 expects that in the beginning, students will have difficulties understanding existing models and how their components interact. Teacher 4 expects her students to have problems getting used to the programming language and subsequently to have problems programming. Numerous teachers expect that modeling aspects such as abstraction – deciding what is relevant for a model and what to leave out — will be difficult. Some teachers expect problems with implementation — translating conceptual model into program code. Teacher 7 expects his students could be too ambitious with the models they want to make and suggests keeping an eye on his students all the time to be able to intervene and help in case they encounter any of these problems.
• Perception: attitude, skills, interest or fun, relevancy, age and development. Teacher 9 expects problems with motivation if the students do not see the relevance of modeling. He also mentions lack of perseverance and inability to go on after getting stuck. Teacher 6 believes that abstract aspects of modeling are difficult for the students of this age – 16 years old. He also mentions students not using common sense.
• Approach: work method, possibility to work on their own case. Some teachers expect problems with students who dive right into building their models without giving it sufficient thought first, and, with students who lack oversight and do not know where to begin. According to teacher 9, the last problem could be alleviated by good teaching material. Several teachers believe some students would have difficulties coming up with a suitable case to model.
Again, some teachers do not know what to say.
4.3.3 Knowledge about instructional strategies (M3)
When asked about their teaching approach, some teachers are cautious about replaying due to lack of experience, but in the end all the teachers have similar ideas that can be summarized as follows: during a period ranging from six to twelve weeks, scaffold learning by beginning with an introduction about models