Inga-Britt Skogh

Programming in School: Look Back to Move Forward

In this article, the development of the Swedish informatics curriculum during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s is studied and described. The study’s design is inspired by the curriculum theory presented by Lindensjö and Lundgren [2000], who suggest using the concept of arenas (the arenas of enactment, transformation and realisation) when discussing curriculum development. Data collection in this study comprises activities and actors in the arenas of enactment and transformation. Collected data include contemporary articles, journals, reports, booklets, government documents and archived documents. Findings show that informatics education in Sweden evolved from primarily focusing on programming knowledge related to automatic data processing and offered exclusively in vocational education (the 1960s and 1970s) to later (early 1980s) being introduced in the upper secondary school curriculum under the heading Datakunskap. The enactment of the informatics curriculum in 1983 encompassed programming, system development and computing in relation to applied sciences and civics. Mathematics teachers did much of the experimental work. It is shown that the competencies of upper secondary school teachers at the time rarely corresponded to the demands of the subject (content knowledge, resources and pedagogical skills). Stereotypical examples were therefore developed to support teachers in instructing about the subject content. When implemented in the theoretical natural science-programme, system development/systemisation was transformed into a twofold issue, comprising vocational attributes and societal aspects of computer programming. The implementation of today’s informatics education, including programming in the curriculum, should draw from lessons learned from history. For a successful outcome, this study emphasises the necessity to understand 1) the common incentives for introducing computer programming in the curriculum, 2) the requirement for teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and 3) the stakeholders’ role in the curriculum development process.

Integrating social sustainability in engineering education at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate what are perceived to be the main challenges associated with the integration of social sustainability into engineering education at the KTH Roy ...

Pre-University Engineering Education

Probably we would not know about pre-university (or K-12, in USA terms) engineering education if there had not been the discussion about STEM education. STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The term started its existence as a rather political term in the mid-2000s.

Pre-University Engineering Education Research at a University of Technology

In recent years, the issue of students’ knowledge and interest in science and technology has attracted the attention of several international studies (e.g., PISA/OECD, ROSE, TIMMS). Findings from these studies have influenced debates about education in general and about STEM subjects in particular (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

Students’ Encounter with Technology Education

What do we know about what happens during technology lessons in school? Life in Swedish technology classrooms has been highlighted in several recent studies (Blomdahl, 2007, Bjurulf, 2008, Klassander, 2010, Svensson, 2011). In these studies issues like teacher’s pedagogical approach, choice of subject content and, to some extent also teachers’ work with assessment and evaluation have been examined from different perspectives and theoretical approaches.

Tuff and the Value of Teachers as Researchers

This book is the outcome of a Swedish project in which a group of technology school teachers carried out a research plan that eventually led to their Licentiate or Ph. D. theses. In the past it was rare when teachers did research. Now there seems to be a certain trend towards the teacher-researcher combination, at least for the time that is needed to produce a Ph. D. thesis. In e.g. Sweden the Swedish National Graduate School in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Research (FontD) has been running since 2002.