Page 91 - Getting the Picture Modeling and Simulation in Secondary Computer Science Education

Investigating CS Teachers’ Initial PCK on Modeling and Simulation
in general, show and explain the working of few models and their code, then give students several assignments to expand existing models or develop simple models from scratch, possibly differentiate to account for students interests, level (HAVO or VWO) or the track they follow (humanities or science), and finally, engage them in a large (group) project where they develop a model from scratch during several weeks. While describing their teaching approach with various degree of detail, the teachers report about:
• Their role as a teacher: to coach, to explain, to show, to help, to
encourage, to keep an eye on students’ progress, and simply to be
there. Teacher 9 says, “and then you come in there to steer. And if it
gets stuck, not just to answer the question, but to help them find the
answer themselves”. Teacher 5 is cautious: “well, when they’re working
on a new model, I don’t always have a ready-made answer.” Teacher 4 7 would have his students recreate a small program to check their
understanding before they embark on the large project. During the project, he would have a double role, both as the teacher and as a client. As the teacher, he would keep an eye on the progress of the whole project. As the client, he would come in every two weeks and tell his students things like “hey, you have things that make no sense” and have students fix the problems themselves.
• Assignments the students work on: open and closed problems and making models. Teacher 6 would have a number of closed problems together with answers for students to practice before embarking on the open problem they have to work on as their final project. For the final project, most teachers would let their students come up with their problems themselves, but would also have a list of problems available for those who cannot think of something themselves.
• Student’s characteristic to take into account: level and the track they follow. Teacher 8 would have different assignments for students to practice on, catering to their needs and preferences, depending on the educational track they follow. Teacher 2 would not require his HAVO students to develop a model from scratch, but would rather have them expand and adjust an existing model.
• Organizational aspects: the daily teaching practice, planning, organizing, SCRUM20, rapid prototyping and playing the role of the
20 https://www.scrum.org
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