Marietjie Havenga

The school subject information technology: a South African perspective

In this paper our presupposition is that the content knowledge of the school subject Information Technology (IT) is beyond the expected depth of Grade 12 learners. We demonstrate our presupposition by indicating different concerns from principals, teachers and learners. We show that learners have not achieved the stated outcomes as specified in the National Curriculum Statement and Learning Programme Guidelines. In addition, we compare the United Kingdoms leading award body for A-Level qualifications for Computing with the IT content framework of South Africa. We recommend a revision of the content framework to accommodate all learners and equip them with a more balanced knowledge base of the subject field.

Lessons Learned from Teaching Scratch as an Introduction to Object-oriented Programming in Delphi

As part of curriculum changes in South Africa, an introductory programming language, Scratch, must first be taught before switching to the well-established teaching of Delphi. The nature of programming in Scratch is considerably different from that in Delphi. It was assumed that the teaching of Scratch as introductory programming language could support learners’ understanding of Delphi. Teachers did not receive much training in Scratch. This study explores teachers’ experiences of their first year of the teaching of Scratch. The purpose of the research was to understand how Scratch can be used effectively as a transitioning language to Delphi and to deduce guidelines for teaching Scratch as introduction to object-oriented programming in Delphi. A qualitative research method, within the interpretive paradigm, was selected for this research. Interviews were done with eight randomly selected Information Technology (IT) teachers in the province of North-West, South Africa to gain insight into their experiences of teaching Scratch in 2012, the first year of implementing the new curriculum. Findings show that teachers were uncertain how to teach programming concepts and how to integrate problem solving and algorithm design into teaching Scratch. The focus of teaching was on Scratch, instead of on teaching programming concepts with Scratch. Emerging guidelines emphasise the integration of problem solving and algorithm design; the creation of opportunities to expose learners to error handling and program testing; and the inculcatation of programming concepts. We furthermore recommend active teaching-learning strategies such as pair programming.

Empowering information technology teachers through professional development: an evaluation

To assist Information Technology (IT) teachers in their endeavour to keep up with the rapid changes in the curriculum, we implemented two approaches to professional development. In this poster we will illustrate the comparison between the traditional training-based professional development (currently implemented to train IT teachers), our face-to-face professional development programme and our multimedia-based professional development programme by using Guskeys 21 characteristics for effective professional development. Once evaluation was completed we proposed a professional development programme incorporating the strengths of each approach evaluated in this poster.

Problem-based Projects in Computer Programming: Students’ Cooperation, Responsibilities and Dependencies

This research reports on second-year students who designed and developed an integrated C# programming and database project as one of the course outcomes in a problem-based environment. Project teamwork involved three key actions, namely cooperation, taking responsibility and dealing with dependencies. For these actions, several competencies were required. Based on the literature, a framework was proposed involving five categories of competencies as well as associated mechanisms to manage team cooperation, responsibilities and dependencies in joint programming projects. The purpose of the research was to test the proposed framework of competencies using the data at hand. An interpretivist approach directed this research and a qualitative methodology was followed. Ninety-nine second-year BSc Computer Science and Information Technology students participated in the research at a South African university. Students worked mainly in teams of two members and selected the partners themselves. Data collection involved weekly project sheets, which indicated a team’s responsibilities and cooperation as well as their planning, design, development and reflection on project activities. The data were manually analysed. Several quotes provided supporting evidence of the proposed framework and it was validated by referring to instances of some mechanisms that team members used to manage their problem-based projects.

Views of the Use of Self-directed Metacognitive Questioning during Pair Programming in Economically Deprived Rural Schools

The research reported in this article formed part of an internationally funded project about the empowerment of Information Technology (IT) teachers in economically deprived rural schools in the North-West and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa. The current paper focused on the use of self-directed metacognitive (SDM) questioning in a pair programming context. The study sample consisted of five IT teachers and 99 Grade 10 IT learners at five schools. The teachers were trained to implement pair programming and to guide learners in the application of metacognitive regulation while doing pair programming. The learners used SDM questions during their subsequent pair programming tasks. Data-gathering was done through interviews with the teachers regarding their views on the use of the SDM questions, and the learners’ journals with their views on how they experienced the SDM questions to direct their thinking during execution of pair programming tasks. The results indicated that the teachers viewed the implementation of the SDM question difficult and time-consuming, and that they experienced the learners to be either reluctant or unwilling to engage in SDM questioning. However, the results of the learners’ journals indicated that the learners experienced the SDM questions to be helpful in directing their thinking during pair programming tasks.