Judith Gal-Ezer

A high school program in computer science

A team of researchers and educators has introduced a computer science curriculum into Israeli high schools. This curriculum combines conceptual and practical issues in a zipper-like fashion. Its emphasis is on the basics of algorithmics, and it teaches programming as a way to get a computer to execute an algorithm. It has been proposed by a committee formed in 1990 by the Israel Ministry of Education. >

A model for high school computer science education: the four key elements that make it!

This paper presents a model program for high school computer science education. It is based on an analysis of the structure of the Israeli high school computer science curriculum considered to be one of the leading curricula worldwide. The model consists of four key elements as well as interconnections between these elements. It is proposed that such a model be considered and/or adapted when a country wishes to implement a nation-wide program for high school computer science education.

Curriculum and Course Syllabi for a High-School CS Program

The authors served on a committee that designed a high-school curriculum in computer science and has been supervising the preparation of a comprehensive study program based on it. The new program is intended for the Israeli high-school system, has been formally approved by the Ministry of Education, and is expected to fully replace the old one in the near future. The program emphasizes the foundations of algorithmics, and teaches programming as a way to get the computer to carry out an algorithm. The purpose of this paper is to describe the programs curriculum and syllabi in detail.

The efficiency of algorithms: misconceptions

The implementation of a new computer science (CS) curriculum in high schools which includes all the basic elements of traditional CS programs, motivated a research to determine how students conceive the very fundamental notion of efficiency. Since this was the first time that algorithm efficiency was integrated into a high school curriculum, our study was crucial for further implementation of the program. This paper describes a study that revealed misconceptions in perceiving the efficiency of algorithms by high school students. We discuss the results, provide some indication of the roots of these misconceptions, suggest ways to prevent them, and recommend further research.

A survey of computer science teacher preparation programs in Israel tells us: computer science deserves a designated high school teacher preparation!

This paper focuses on the development and implementation of computer science (CS) teacher preparation programs, which are among the educational and pedagogical challenges faced by those involved in the current development of CS. It presents a survey that reflects the accumulative knowledge gained in Israel over the past twenty years with respect to CS teacher preparation. We explored nine institutes (six universities and three teacher education colleges) that offer CS teacher preparation programs. The survey indicates that while the programs vary in their implementation details, they are all motivated by the unique characteristics of CS, which play a central role in their design. We suggest that this observation further emphasizes the obvious: CS deserves designated CS teacher preparation programs. We therefore hope that this survey will contribute to the community of CS educators in general and to practitioners involved in developing CS teacher preparation programs in particular.

A Tale of Two Countries: Successes and Challenges in K-12 Computer Science Education in Israel and the United States

This article tells a story of K-12 computer science in two different countries. These two countries differ profoundly in culture, language, government and state structure, and in their education systems. Despite these differences, however, they share the pursuit of excellence and high standards in K-12 education. In Israel, curriculum is determined at the national level. The high-school computer science curriculum has been in place for more than 20 years and is offered in all schools as an elective similar to biology, chemistry, and physics. The picture in the United States is more complex and therefore less amenable to generalization. Because educational policy is set at the state and sometimes even at the school district level, access to computer science courses and the content of those courses can vary even for schools within the same district. This article will describe the development of the curricula/standards in both countries and the current situation, focusing on common issues and challenges in areas such as equity and teacher training.

Computer science teacher preparation is critical

In this paper, we report on the research and recommendations of the CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association) Teacher Certification Task Force, addressing the crisis in computer science teacher preparation and certification. This paper will address the importance of computer science as a scientific discipline, and provide a brief discussion of the relevant research and current existing certification models Primarily, however, this paper focuses on the Task Forces recommended models for teacher preparation and certification in computer science.

Early computing education: why? what? when? who?

R ecently there has been considerable discussion regarding the importance of computer science education in schools and its absence in todays basic education in many countries. Code.org and others have tried to change the state of the art by promoting coding, which is one aspect of computer science. In this short paper we present our point of view regarding how computer science should be integrated into basic school education, while emphasizing that computer science is much more than just coding. In addition, we provide short answers to the questions: Why is it important? What should be taught and learned, when, and by whom? Countries worldwide have realized that it is important to anchor computer science (CS) in the school system. Organizations like the ACM, CSTA and others, as well as university faculties, have struggled for many years to integrate computing into the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This realization has led to various initiatives in many countries at different levels, throughout the K-12 system—from preschool , through elementary school, middle school and high school. Though the exact definition of these levels varies over countries, in the following discussion we will approximately think of middle school (interchangeably referred to as junior high school) as grades 7-9 (ages 13-15) and of elementary school and high school as the grades preceding and following middle school, respectively. Some of these initiatives focus on narrower aspects of CS, such as coding. This focus is sometimes endorsed by parents , who are in favor of teaching their children coding, though this often stems from the false expectation that this will help their children obtain high-salary jobs. In addition, there is still confusion among policy makers and others regarding what computer science means. It should be made clear that computer science or computing, as it is sometimes called, does not mean applications or Information and Communication Technology (ICT), neither does it refer to using computers to obtain more insight when teaching and learning other disciplines. Computer science is definitely not just coding, though coding is an essential part of it. Computer science is a scientific discipline with theoretical as well as applicative aspects. How should one approach the very complex task of discussing even guidelines for a school program in a specific subject, especially a relatively new one in general and in the context of K-12 education in particular? It is often recommended [e.g., …

How to establish a computer science teacher preparation program at your university?: the ECSTPP workshop

This paper presents a workshop on the establishment of computer science teacher preparation programs. The workshop is designed for the potential initiators of such programs---computer scientists and computer science curriculum developers-who do have computer science teaching experience, either in academia or in the high school, but lack knowledge about the actual construction of such programs. We suggest that such a workshop may stimulate the establishment of additional computer science teacher preparation programs, meeting the need identified in 2007 by the CSTA.

SOLVING PROBLEMS REDUCTIVELY

Solving problems by reduction is an important issue in mathematics and science education in general (both in high school and in college or university) and particularly in computer science education. Developing reductive thinking patterns is an important goal in any scientific discipline, yet reduction is not an easy subject to cope with. Still, the use of reduction usually is insufficiently reflected in high school mathematics and science programs. Even in academic computer science programs the concept of reduction is mentioned explicitly only in advanced academic courses such as computability and complexity theory. However, reduction can be applied in other courses as well, even on the high school level. Specifically, in the field of computational models, reduction is an important method for solving design and proof problems. This study focuses on high school students studying the unit “computational models”—a unique unit, which is part of the new Israeli computer science high school curriculum. We examined whether high school students tend to solve problems dealing with computational models reductively, and if they do, what is the nature of their reductive solutions. To the best of our knowledge, the tendency to reductive thinking in theoretical computer science has not been studied before. Our findings show that even though many students use reduction, many others prefer non-reductive solutions, even when reduction can significantly decrease the technical complexity of the solution. We discuss these findings and suggest possible ways to improve reductive thinking.