High School CS Internationally

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High School CS Internationally bits & bytes status update: HIgH scHool cs INterNatIoNallY ■ lawrence Snyder ■ Many countries are engaged in efforts to revamp their high such courses. At the provincial level there is no CS teacher training in school computer science curricula. This paper touches briefly Ontario or British Columbia. Some faculty members with a “specialist” on the state of affairs with high school CS in Canada, Israel, certification do teach computing, of course. They are supported, for India, and New Zealand. Each country has different issues to example, by annual workshops at Waterloo and Toronto. address in implementing a concepts-rich high school computer Nevertheless, more attention to the issue is probably needed. science curriculum. The paper then reviews the recent report As Waterloo’s Sandy Graham remarked recently in email. “[In] my from the United Kingdom, Shut Down or Restart? The Way personal opinion, I think that CS education should be a national Forward for Computing in the UK Schools. concern. From my perspective, the CS Education Week that is sup- ported by ACM and has received publicity on a national level in the US is a good initiative. I think both these initiatives are worth pur- 1 Introduction suing, and would be happy to see something like them in Canada.” The time to offer substantive Computer Science to pre-college students has come. Different countries are at different stages in Israel creating concepts-rich high school curricula, and all come with dif- For the last dozen years Israeli high school Computer Science ferent histories. Nevertheless, when Computer Science is under- education has been guided by a Ministry of Education curriculum stood from a 2012 perspective, these are clearly the early days of [1], prescribing the five courses shown in Figure 1. the endeavor. There are many great intentions, some nascent plans, and a few accomplishments. Fundamentals 1 and 2 (2 units): Introduces the central concepts of Rather than attempting to catalog activities that are moving solving algorithmic problems and teaches how to apply them in a rapidly, we begin with four representative examples. Then, because programming language. of its thoroughness and timeliness, we move on to review the Royal Software Design (1 unit): Concentrates on data structures, Society’s Shut Down or Restart report, dated January 12, 2012 introduces abstract data structures and discusses the design of [4]. That report has considerable interest not only for its careful complete systems. consideration of the UK’s situation and its thoughtful recom- Second Paradigm (1 unit): Introduces a second programming mendations, but it addresses issues that overlap substantially with paradigm. Logic programming, functional programming and those of concern in many countries. The similarity or differences in system-level programming are three of the current possibilities. responses give insight into the nature of the problems and options Applications (1 unit): Focuses on one particular application, for solutions. emphasizing both theory and practice. Current possibilities are computer graphics, management information systems and Internet 2 Four Representatives programming. This section is a four-stop world tour summarizing the state of Theory (1 unit): Exposes students to selected topics in theoretical affairs in four representative countries, Canada, Israel, India and CS. One of the current possibilities is models of computation, New Zealand. mainly finite automata. Figure 1: The five courses of the Israeli high school computing curriculum. Canada Canada and the US share much more than a long border. Because With such a sustained commitment to teaching concepts-rich some Canadian high schools presently offer other AP courses, we computing courses, the problems of teacher training and certifica- can assume that AP CS Principles will eventually be offered too. tion have already been addressed [2, 3]. Canadian teachers will doubtless participate in AP CSP-related Relative to the CS Principles/CS10K discussion, the Tech- professional development. nion’s Orit Hazzan explained in recent email, “The Israeli HS The issue is how to prepare Canadian faculty broadly to teach con- CS curriculum aims neither to prepare the students for academic cepts-rich CS classes not related to the CSP effort. At present, there studies in CS and related fields, nor to broaden participation in is no Ministry of Education training program to support teaching computing and computer science. Rather, it attempts to deliver 82 acm Inroads 2012 June • Vol. 3 • No.2 bits & bytes the spirit of CS, as [broadly] as possible at the HS level, as a Guidelines, the process is forward-looking, the content is concept- scientific discipline.” rich, and the effort is moving rapidly. The process is perhaps most A new committee was commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of succinctly described in an “Expert Panel Report” from 2009 laying Education to study how the existing 1998 high school CS curricu- out the plan. Notice Item 5 of Figure 2. lum should adapt to changes in CS over the past dozen years. Their report is imminent. 3 The United Kingdom In January 2012, the Royal Society issued a report Shut Down India or Restart? The Way Forward for Computing in the UK Schools [4]. Having a long tradition of high quality CS education at the IITs, Chaired by Steve Furber and supported by a luminary committee India is representative of nations with rapidly developing econo- and broad participation of the stakeholders, SDoR? is certain to mies: They know what to do, but the resources are not yet available. have a major impact on UK computer science education policy in Teaching CS in high school must be postponed. With IT companies secondary education. needing to recruit 200,000 – 300,000 graduates per year – numbers dramatically in excess of the IIT’s capacity – the task of teaching Getting Started quality CS at college must be resolved first. Mathai Joseph of MSR- The report opens with the assertion that “[t]he current delivery of India explained in a recent personal email, “There is an acute shortage Computing education in many UK schools is highly unsatisfacto- of teachers of computing in Indian colleges, and many of those who ry.” Four principal reasons are listed for this claim: (1) The national wear this tag have actually moved from other kinds of engineering Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) curriculum, and so lack a basic background in computing.” It’s “first things first” as allowing broad interpretation, too often sinks to the lowest level the demands of development create pressures that cannot be ignored. where non-specialists can teach it; (2) a shortage of qualified teach- High school students may not be left behind; however, as ers to teach at higher levels, (3) a lack of professional development technology enters the mix. Joseph continues, “We cannot wait to for computing teachers, and (4) technical difficulties with the first teach the teachers: the students cannot wait and they may computing infrastructure at schools. well learn faster on their own. So we are providing supplementary A critical contributor to the difficulty is a cycle of confusion in [online] material to help teachers to understand and teach the which students, expecting serious computing courses, get digital material, but we will not prevent students from learning the same literacy that teaches them material (applications) they long ago things on their own.” Technology to the rescue. mastered, from which they conclude computer science is boring, causing little interest in the subject, presenting the universities with New Zealand few students choosing a CS major, resulting in few graduates and a Beginning in February 2011, New Zealand high schools were severe talent shortage, and no one to teach the computing courses permitted to teach computer science as a formal topic defined in a in high schools. national standard [8]. As Tim Bell remarked at SIGCSE, “De- Then – on page 2 – the report stops and defines terms, because spite the standards being new, and older programming standards as it states confusion over computing-related terms extends well still being available, over 1400 students in 49 schools have already beyond the misunderstandings of high school students. The whole registered for the new computer science standards” [6]. conversation has been handicapped. The terms are given in Figure This milestone is a midpoint in a reinvention of the New 3, and the remedy for the confusion is schematically illustrated in Zealand’s ICT curriculum. Called The Digital Technologies Figure 4. The bottom line: dump ICT. 1. ICT, Computing, and related technologies contain the following five sub-categories, an appropriate number of credits, yet will be provided for in senior secondary based on the draft Body of Knowledge: to be determined. Draft material will be education under the Technology Learning Electronics, Programming & Computer available from July 2010. Area and will replace the existing Science, Digital Information, Digital 6. Teaching and Learning Guidelines will technological area of ICT. This area will be Media, Digital Infrastructure (including be created for Technology, with a well called Digital Technologies. networking, hardware, software, systems) developed specific section for Digital 2. As part of a comprehensive consultation 4. A set of Digital Technologies Achievement Technologies based on the Body of process during July 2009, specific Standards will be created to assess Knowledge, and available to schools in knowledge and skills under the specific knowledge and skills not covered draft form in late 2010. Technology learning area will be by the generic Technology Achievement 7. The DTEP will nominate representatives categorised into three areas. These are Standards or other existing achievement to work with the Technology Reference proposed to be “Digital Technologies”, standards. Group, Digital Technologies Standards “Graphics and Design”, and “Material 5. The Level 1 Achievement Standards Writing Group and the group responsible and Processing Technologies” and will sit will be available for use from January for developing Digital Technologies alongside generic technology.
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