Methods of teaching a computer science course for prospective teachers

Abstract

This article focuses on a "Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School" course (abbreviated MTCS). It presents the rationale and need for the course, and suggests optional course frameworks and implementations that are not limited to a particular programming language, programming paradigm, level of students, or curriculum.

Preparation of high school computer science teachers

“…The importance of this special session derives from (a) the worldwide recognition of the importance of high school CS teacher preparation [10]; (b) the strength of the Israeli nationalwide high school CS curriculum [2,6,11]; and (c) the implementation of various models of teacher preparation programs in Israel [3,7,8].…”

A model for high school computer science education

“…The Methods of Teaching CS course can be based on different frameworks ( [15]), such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards ( [19]), the merger of CS with pedagogy, Shulman's model of teachers' knowledge ( [17]), and research findings. It is important to note that the suggested frameworks and implementations are not limited to a particular curriculum, programming paradigm, programming language, or level of students.…”

“…It is important to note that the suggested frameworks and implementations are not limited to a particular curriculum, programming paradigm, programming language, or level of students. Additional details about the Methods of Teaching CS course can be found in [13,15].…”

Song debugging

“…In a previous publication (Lapidot & Hazzan, 2003), we suggested the use of this special amalgam of CS and pedagogy as one possible organizing idea for the MTCS course and offered one possible implementation of the concept. Specifically, we demonstrated the theme of teaching soft ideas in CS using five activities that deal with the concept of abstraction.…”