Concepts in K-9 Computer Science Education

Barendsen, Erik; Mannila, Linda; Demo, Barbara; Grgurina, Nataša; Izu, Cruz; Mirolo, Claudio; Sentance, Sue; Settle, Amber; Stupurienė, Gabrielė

doi:10.1145/2858796.2858800

Cited by 46 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…Interaction (Human-Computer Interaction, HCI), systems and society Analyses of the Bebras tasks used in the 2014 contest were conducted according to the cognitive skills' domains (Bloom taxonomy): this showed that the most tasks demonstrated higher-order thinking skills in the Bloom's taxonomy: Understanding, Applying, Analysing and Evaluating (Dagiene & Stupuriene, 2014). In another analysis examining the topics of all Bebras tasks used between 2010 and 2014, the most commonly occurring computational thinking topics were algorithms (66%) and data representation (38%), followed by abstraction (16%) (Barendsen et al, 2015).…”

Section: Computational Thinking and Bebrasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It’s Computational Thinking! Bebras Tasks in the Curriculum

Dagienė

Sentance

2016

Informatics in Schools: Improvement of Informatics Knowledge and Perception

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Abstract.Bebras is an award-winning, international contest and challenge in informatics that has been running for 12 years in primary and secondary schools, with 50 countries now participating. From a single contest-focused annual event the Bebras developed to a multifunctional challenge; an activitiesbased educational community-building network has grown up where the development of Bebras tasks has taken a very significant role. Bebras tasks present a motivating way to introduce computer science concepts to students as well as developing computational thinking skills. Tasks are categorized in terms of the concepts being covered, and each task includes an explanation of how the task relates to informatics. In this paper we propose that Bebras tasks can be used within the school curriculum (whether it is called informatics, computer science, computing or information technology) to promote computational thinking and provide teaching materials. We give examples of Bebras tasks that could be incorporated into the curriculum, and make recommendations for schools wishing to develop children's computational thinking skills.Keywords: Bebras contest, computational thinking, computer science education, informatics curriculum, informatics education, task solving IntroductionThere is an increasing focus on computational thinking within the teaching of computer science, computing or informatics (from here on referred to as informatics) in school. Computational thinking was only recently popularised as a concept in 2006 by Wing (2006), although the original definition stems from Papert (1996). Wing claims that computational thinking is for everyone and involves "solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science" (Wing, 2006, p. 34). Some new informatics curricula have a significant focus on computational thinking skills being developed, for example in England (Brown et al, 2014) and Poland (Syslo & Kwiatkowska, 2015). In the longstanding Bebras contest (Bebras, 2016), tasks are designed which demonstrate computer science principles whilst engaging students in problem-solving in a motivating way.Bebras is an informatics education community-building model and is designed to promote informatics learning in school by solving short concept-based tasks (Dagiene & Stupuriene, 2016). Tasks are the most important component of the Bebras model. Each Bebras task should include at least one informatics concept, attract children's attention by a story, picture or interactivity, be short (fits in a computer screen), and not require specific technical knowledge. Some countries use the Bebras to strengthen collaborative learning; for example, in Germany pupils solve Bebras tasks in pairs during a contest and discussions are allowed between the pairs.Alongside the initial goal of the Bebras project to motivate pupils to be more interested in informatics topics there is a strong intention to deepen algorithmic, logical and operational thinking and, more recently, c...

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Section: Computational Thinking and Bebrasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The topic of networks is very broad; it can be found in various forms in many countries' informatics curricular (Barendsen et al, 2015). At school level, this topic could cover topologies, communication, networking protocols, security and the way that the internet is structured.…”

Section: Learning About Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

It’s Computational Thinking! Bebras Tasks in the Curriculum

Dagienė

Sentance

2016

Informatics in Schools: Improvement of Informatics Knowledge and Perception

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“…They also observe that on one hand the term "coding" has a broader meaning in CS (e.g. in cryptography or in information theory), and on the other hand it is often used to indicate the stage of software development when programs are actually written [10,1,2]. In other words, "coding" is considered as a narrower concept excluding important phases like analysis, design, testing, debugging [3].…”

Section: Literature Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Italian Primary School Teachers’ View on Coding and Programming

Corradini¹,

Lodi²,

Nardelli

2018

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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This paper reports the results of an investigation involving almost a thousand primary school teachers in Italy, to explore their views on the terms "coding" and "programming", and how they are related to their ideas on "computational thinking". When directly asked "if coding is different from writing programs", roughly 2 out of 3 teachers answered "no". Among the teachers who answered "yes", almost 160 tried to motivate the difference: a few of them gave admissible explanations, while the others showed various misunderstandings, which we classify and discuss. By contrast, when asked about their idea of "what coding is", only 4 out of 10 of the teachers explicitly linked coding to programming, but an additional 2 out of 10 cited an information processing agent executing instructions. The remaining part of the sample did not provide explicit or implicit links between coding and programming. Our investigation shows that untrained teachers hold misconceptions regarding CS and its related terms. Given the general public and media attention on "coding" in schools, currently taught by existing teachers -mostly not appropriately trained, professional development actions focusing on CS scientific principles and methods are therefore a top priority for the effectiveness of CS education in schools.

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“…Bebras is about concept in computer science and computational thinking. Barendsen et al (2015) show that it is possible to identify concepts on programming in various questions in the Bebras task pool. Izu, Mirolo, Settle, Mannilla, and Stupuriene (2017) describe how the goals of computational thinking are reflected in Bebras tasks.…”

Section: Content Difficultymentioning

confidence: 99%

How Hard Will this Task Be? Developments in Analyzing and Predicting Question Difficulty in the Bebras Challenge

Vegt

2018

Olympiads in Informatics

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Predicting the difficulty level of a task on the concepts of computer science or computational thinking, like in the Bebras Challenge, proves to be really hard. Question difficulty breaks down in content difficulty, stimulus difficulty and task difficulty. Several instruments are suggested to predict the overall difficulty level, like using a questionnaire or a rubric; these instruments are applied on the data of a recent contest and proved useful. Relative scoring could also turnout helpful. Especially on content difficulty easy applicable solutions are lacking.

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Concepts in K-9 Computer Science Education

Cited by 46 publications

References 60 publications

It’s Computational Thinking! Bebras Tasks in the Curriculum

It’s Computational Thinking! Bebras Tasks in the Curriculum

An Investigation of Italian Primary School Teachers’ View on Coding and Programming

How Hard Will this Task Be? Developments in Analyzing and Predicting Question Difficulty in the Bebras Challenge

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