Bert Zwaneveld

Computational thinking skills in Dutch secondary education

Computational Thinking is regarded as a necessary analytical skill for young people in the present day information society. We report on an ongoing design research project on Computational Thinking (CT) skills in Dutch secondary computer science (CS) education. The first phase of the project investigates the occurrence and nature of typical CT aspects in existing CS teaching materials, teachers pedagogical content knowledge and policy documents. In the poster we focus on the overall research design and on the method and preliminary results of the first phase.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Material.

The scope of this article is to understand to what extent Computer Science teachers can find support for their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in teaching material. We report the results of a study in which PCK is used as framework to develop a research instrument to examine three high school computer science textbooks, with special focus on programming. PCK is analyzed in this study in its two components: pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK). The results of the textbooks have been compared with the results of a previous study, in which experienced teachers from various countries were involved in semi-structured interviews to portray the PCK of programming for secondary school. Our expectations to find textbooks relatively strong on the CK, but weak on the PK aspect, is confirmed by the results.

Defining and Observing Modeling and Simulation in Informatics

Computational Thinking (CT) is gaining a lot of attention in education. In this study we focus on the CT aspect modeling and simulation. We conducted a case study analyzing the projects of 12th grade high school informatics students in which they made models and ran simulations of phenomena from other disciplines. We constructed an analytic framework based on literature about modeling and analyzed students’ project documentation, recordings of student groups at work and during presentations, survey results and interviews with individual students. We examined how to discern the elements of our framework in the students’ work. Moreover, we determined which data sources are suitable for observing students’ learning. Finally, we investigated what difficulties students encounter while working on modeling and simulation projects. Our findings result in an operational definition of modeling and simulation, and provide input for future development of both assessment instruments and instructional strategies.

Investigating Informatics Teachers’ Initial Pedagogical Content Knowledge on Modeling and Simulation

Computational science, comprised of modeling and simulation, is a new theme in the new 2019 Dutch secondary education informatics curriculum. To investigate the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) on modeling and simulation, we interviewed ten informatics teachers and analyzed their PCK, distinguishing its four elements - knowledge of goals and objectives, students’ understanding, instructional strategies and assessment - and investigated potential differential features of their PCK in order to typify teachers’ individual PCK. We charted the teachers’ PCK in terms of these four elements and found differential features related to knowledge of goals and objectives and related to knowledge of assessment, dividing these teachers into four distinct groups. However, these differential features do not lead to distinct types of PCK. Our findings will be used to explore the future development of teachers’ PCK and they will contribute to the development of teaching materials, assessment instruments and teacher training courses on modeling.

Quality Criteria for Mathematical Models in Relation to Models’ Purposes: Their Usefulness in Engineering Education

A taxonomy of eight quality criteria for mathematical models was developed for the common basic modelling course in the innovated BSc curriculum of Eindhoven University of Technology. First year engineering students of all disciplines reflected on their group modelling projects, indicating how their models could be improved, using the criteria. The students were also asked to indicate the purpose(s) of their models from a list of 16 purposes. This study explores the usefulness of the purposes and criteria, defined as relevance combined with understandability. Optimisation proved to be the most relevant purpose, followed by analysis, prediction (what), and verification.Specialisation, genericity, scalability, distinctiveness, and convincingness criteria proved useful; but audience, impact, and surprise did not.

Discussion of Methods for Threshold Research and an Application in Computer Science

The first Dutch dissertation concerning CS education was by Saeli (2012), built on publications with Perrenet, Jochems, and Zwaneveld (2011, 2102a, 2012b). Saeli et al. studied secondary CS education, specifically programming, from the perspective of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK).

Mathematical modelling in Dutch textbooks : is it genuine mathematical modelling?

In this chapter, we analyse the two most frequently used Dutch mathematics textbooks for upper secondary schools in order to determine to what extent the tasks in these textbooks meet the criteria we have set for genuine mathematical modelling: does a modelling task have a modelling purpose, and do the students have to perform characteristic modelling activities? The criterion of having a modelling purpose stems from a modelling course in tertiary education by the last two authors. For the characteristic modelling activities, we used the research of the first two authors. Only a very small percentage of the analysed tasks meets the criteria. So, there is hardly any genuine mathematical modelling in the two textbooks, although it is explicitly mentioned in the formal curriculum.

The Dutch Situation: An Ever Continuing Story

In this chapter we describe the development of teaching with and about computers, mainly in Dutch secondary education. The focus is on the years 1970 – 1995, but we also give some insight into what happens afterwards. Because there are only a few written sources available of what happened in classrooms, we give most attention to national policies during that period. With the help of some colleagues from teacher training institutions we can also present some insight in what support was offered to their students and to teachers who were already in duty. We also report about the resources for teaching: courses, the teachers’ association, an advisory institution, books/periodicals and software/courseware. In our conclusions we mention, that initially there was no difference between teaching with or about computers. The most interesting point in the conclusions is that the government rather lately developed a policy and thought that that policy would be sufficient for future development of teaching with and about IT in schools. This assumption turned out to be false and each time, up to nowadays, the government had to take its responsibility on these issues.

Mathematical Modelling and Cognitive Load Theory: Approved or Disapproved?

The research question for this theoretical study is: What is the use of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) for mathematical modelling education (MME)? CLT is a notable theory about the consequences of human memory structure for teaching, claiming specific relevancy for mathematics education. A set of scientific CLT research papers at secondary level mathematics teaching is compared with the Dutch Handbook of Mathematics Didactics on pedagogical perspective as well as on concrete directives for modelling education. Cognitive scheme theory is the common base, but concrete directives strongly differ. Most CLT directives appear to be of limited use for MME, but some are interesting. A discussion of CLT’s rejection of constructivism leads to the importance of structured support in teaching use of the mathematical modelling cycle.