Jiří Vaníček

Oborové didaktiky: vývoj – stav – perspektivy

Oborove didaktiky jsou vědnimi disciplinami zaměřenými na oborově specifickou dimenzi vyucovani a uceni ve skole i mimo ni. Jejich agenda saha od vymezovani a zdůvodňovani cilů oboroveho vyucovani a uceni přes výběr, legitimizaci a didaktickou transformaci obsahů až k metodicke strukturaci ucebnich procesů. Problemem ceskeho skolstvi je, že oborove didaktiky u nas nebyly po dlouhou dobu s naležitými naroky systematicky pěstovany. Přesto se rozvinuly do podoby relativně svebytných vědnich disciplin, jak o tom svědci tato kniha. Jejim cilem je podat pohled na vývoj a stav oborových didaktik v Ceske republice a naznacit perspektivy jejich dalsiho směřovani.

Bebras Informatics Contest: Criteria for Good Tasks Revised

The Bebras International Contest on Informatics and Computer Fluency has significantly grown in the number of participating countries and participants in recent years. Six years ago Dagienė and Futschek determined the criteria for good contest tasks, which are frequently used by the International Bebras Committee for selecting and improving tasks for national contest organizers. New experience and findings from several surveys allow us to reconsider these criteria from a new viewpoint and to assess which of these criteria are still actual, which need revisions and whether some new criteria are needed if the process of creation of informatics tasks for the contest is to be improved. The paper discusses the issues of motivation, interactivity, multiple-choice answers and content topics. The reviewed criteria and categories might be useful for authors of Bebras tasks as well as for creators of informatics curricula.

What Makes Situational Informatics Tasks Difficult

Organizers of the informatics contest Bebras in many countries face the obstacle of how to state the difficulty of contest tasks and problems accurately. This is essential if tasks with good prediction of success are to be selected for the contest.

The use of Inquiry Based Education in a Simulation Software Environment in Pre-Service ICT Teacher Training

Abstract The article deals with the possibilities of using inquiry based education methods as part of preservice ICT teacher education. The question is how this teaching method can be used within a specialised subject focused on teaching technical principles, in this case concerning the functionality of various computer networks and their components. The first task was to find appropriate software for such a method of teaching. Software simulating a computer network was chosen and modified curricula was used so that students could obtain crucial competencies for understanding networks by independently exploring them for themselves: how a prepared network operates, finding connections and formulating a written conclusion. The goal was to direct students to actively experiment with the assigned networks and research answers to the assigned questions. However, instead of simply being given outright answers, students were advised how to proceed in order to find solutions for themselves. Another aim was to familiarize future teachers with this method in the role of pupil. The data for the research was acquired from participant observation and the evaluation of the lessons via questionnaires and a group discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of this approach in the lessons in comparison with similar subjects taught traditionally. It was found that successful students started to ask questions which they were interested in and to go on inquiring to answer them. Although the students realized the benefits of the teaching approach, many of them were not prepared enough to work with this method (particularly due to the lack of knowledge of basic theoretical concepts).

Influences on ICT teachers knowledge and routines in a technical e-safety context

Abstract The article presents the results of research on the knowledge and routines of ICT teachers in a technical e-safety context. Primary, lower secondary and high school teachers can have a significant impact on the e-safety of children and youngsters by raising their awareness of the risks associated with the use of technologies. Technical e-safety has roughly been acknowledged as an area where interpersonal relationships are not prioritised. A qualitative analysis of open-coded in-depth interviews with ICT teachers using the Grounded Theory method identified determinants that influence teachers’ knowledge and routines and a model of formation was developed. Firstly, there are external and internal influences. Another factor is teachers’ attitudes to e-safety rules that should support safe behaviour. Thirdly, teachers have barriers to protection in their minds and these could hinder their safe behaviour. Previous negative experiences have also been identified as another significant factor that affects a teacher’s e-safety habits. The developed theory describes causal and intervening relationships between the given categories. The developed theory will serve as a basis for proposing steps to improve ICT teachers’ knowledge of e-safety and ways teacher education might be adapted to achieve that.

Programming in Scratch Using Inquiry-Based Approach

Inquiry-based learning has recently become one of the much advocated methodologies used especially in teaching of natural sciences. This of course opens the question whether it is suitable also for teaching informatics, or even more specifically for teaching programming in a didactical programming environment. In action research conducted within teaching practice of pre-service informatics teachers we tried to explore if any of the approaches and types of activities used by these pre-service teachers correspond to the principles of inquiry-based learning. In the research we study how pre-service teachers cope with these approaches to teaching, what contemporary pupils’ attitudes to learning programming are, how this topic and the different activities used in the lessons appeal to them and how this type of lessons is perceived by teachers themselves – pre-service informatics teachers.

Informatics Education: Current State and Perspectives of Development Within the System of Field Didactics in the Czech Republic

Abstract This study offers an overview of the current state in the field of informatics education in the Czech Republic. The new publication of a monograph focusing on field didactics showed that a complex analysis of the current state and future perspectives of developments in informatics education that has not yet been addressed is needed. This paper presents an overview of development in the discipline from the 1960s, defines the main goals of informatics education in the Czech Republic, namely the contents and methods of ICT and computer science education, the need to revise the content areas in official pedagogical documents, teacher education including training of primary teachers and methodology of research in the field of informatics education. The authors of the paper analyse current trends that have impact on informatics education and also refer to the dynamics of computer science education, gradual shift of computer science to lower school levels and introduction of new computer science topics into the area of information and communication technologies. In the conclusion the authors formulate the current problems that informatics education will have to tackle and indicate the possible dangers and perspectives of its future developments. In this article, we distinguish between informatics education as a school subject education and computer science education and ICT education which we understand as parts of this school subject in this context.