Bringing Computer Science to Secondary Schools – Curriculum Design and Implementation

Until very recently, the focus on preparing a computer science educated generation has only been limited to tertiary education, while computing education in K-12 was largely ignored. Most of the school systems around the world keep computer science as an elective course. Hence, we know very little on teaching methods, curriculum, and teacher training required to teach Computer Science and Computational Thinking to K-12 students. With the increasing penetration of computing in our daily lives, the importance of computational thinking has pushed many countries to introduce computing education at an early stage in their educational systems. Although the approach to early computing education varies in different countries, many had recently included Computer Science (CS) in their K-12 curriculum. Qatar’s educational vision is in line with the international call to improve computing education and this is evident in Qatar National Vision 2030 that set the roadmap for its nation to become a “Knowledge-based economy”. Following this vision, human development was set as the first pillar in ensuring a highly educated society. Although, most of the computer subjects taught in Qatari schools are limited to the use of technology such as using Adobe and Office programs, few programming subjects like Robotics or Visual Basic are also taught. Those programming subjects are generally focused on teaching step-by-step instructions to create applications rather than teaching computational concepts and developing critical thinking. Hence, a comprehensive computing curriculum that is anchored in principles and research, is needed to cope with Qatar’s vision. A few years back, we realized the importance of Computer Science education in K-12 and proposed a study to introduce computing in Middle School. This study was funded by QNRF under the NPRP program for three years. We have very recently concluded this project. During the project, we designed a year-long curriculum for Middle Schools that used Alice programming environment to encourage students to learn programming concepts. The curriculum was designed after careful study of local cultures, norms, and levels of students and teachers. This Alice-based computing curriculum was recently adopted by the Ministry of Education in Qatar as the standard curriculum for all public schools run by the ministry. One of the major complains from the teachers after the field testing of the curriculum was that the students learn computing with this curriculum but as they finish the academic year and move on to higher grades, they go back to studying productivity tools like Microsoft Office, video editing tools, and other miscellaneous topics. The students are disappointed in the higher grades as the mundane curriculum does not challenge the students in their logical thinking skills. This proposal is the logical extension of our previous work where we build on the success of the Alice project and exploit the lessons we learnt during this process to design a curriculum that teaches students computer science over the whole three years of Middle school. In this project we plan on three main objectives: Create a Computer Science (CS) curriculum that spans three years of Middle school; create professional development program to help train teachers deliver this curriculum; and to create assessment tools and techniques along with comprehensive evaluation procedures that will enable us to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving its aims and objectives. The first major component of this project is a three-year CS curriculum that provides schools and teachers with a turnkey solution. This work will involve developing course objectives for both semesters of each grade as well as the academic schedule that spreads the topics in manageable packages throughout the academic year. Curriculum will include model lesson plans and assessment tools that can help teachers measure the learning objectives of each lesson. Based on our experience with the Alice-based curriculum, we will provide learning tools like textbooks, online videos, and sample practice problems as well. This curriculum should provide vertical continuity from one grade to next within middle-school, as well as, horizontal continuity within each grade. In order to achieve this horizontal continuity, we will work closely with our collaborating schools (schools who are already working with us for the Alice project) to understand student knowledge of other subjects like Math, English, and the Sciences and leverage this knowledge in presenting Computer Science concepts in class. Education systems around the world recognize that an effective curriculum should begin with a comprehensive professional development that focuses on developing traits that are essential for an effective teacher in their area of expertise. Developing a strong, intensive, on-going, and connected to practice professional development program is one of the primary focus of this proposal. We have observed that most teachers involved with computing related subjects, might have some limited background in computing, but because of the nature of the existing curriculum, their practice of computing has been limited to productivity tools they have been teaching. There is a strong need to reteach them computing concepts in order for them to be effective teachers. Following the development and proper implementation of a curriculum, appropriate evaluation procedures must be put in place to examine the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving the aims and objectives it was set to achieve. Hence, to assess the CS curriculum, a comprehensive evaluation of its effectiveness and the impact it had on participating schools will be implemented. We have been working closely with Ministry of Education, as well as, several private schools in Qatar. We plan to continue this collaboration to implement all three main objectives of our project.