Tami Lapidot

The practicum in computer science education: bridging gaps between theoretical knowledge and actual performance

This article focuses on the practicum, one of the more important parts of computer science teacher preparation. During this stage, the prospective teachers practice the teaching of computer science in a high school setting before becoming actual computer science teachers. The practicum is highlighted in this article from three angles: the prospective teachers perspective, the MTCS course perspective and the university mentors perspective. For each perspective we illustrate the importance of the practicum by explaining how it bridges a specific gap. These gaps are illustrated by two examples that focus on content and pedagogical aspects of computer science education.

Song debugging: merging content and pedagogy in computer science education

This article suggests a song debugging activity that brings together two key ideas - the analogy between learning and debugging and the pedagogical potential of music in Computer Science Education (CSE). The paper can be viewed as the fourth in a series of papers published in inroads about the course Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School, but it can also stand on its own merit, since it discusses issues that are relevant to CSE in general.

Social issues of Computer Science in the "Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School" course

This paper discusses social issues of Computer Science in the context of the preparation of high school Computer Science teachers. Specifically, it focuses on the importance of addressing social issues in the Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School course and illustrates the actual teaching, in the course, of the following three social issues of Computer Science: ethics, diversity, and history of Computer Science.

The Israeli summer seminars for CS leading teachers

In this poster, we describe a four years experience of summer seminars for high-school computer-science (CS) leading teachers in Israel. The seminars featured encounters between CS researchers and teachers, as well as pedagogy based activities.

Active Learning and the Active-Learning-Based Teaching Model

This chapter* presents an active-learning-based teaching model for implementation in the MTCS course, which is based on the constructivist approach. This model is used in this Guide in most of the offered activities. The chapter starts with the motivation and the rationale for using active learning in the MTCS course; then, the active-learning-based teaching model is introduced and explained, including a description of the role of the instructor of the MTCS course in the model implementation.

Teaching Methods in Computer Science Education

This chapter presents active-learning-based teaching methods that computer science educators can employ in the classroom. The purpose of this chapter is first, to let the students in the MTCS course experience a variety of teaching methods before becoming computer science teachers; second, to discuss, together with the students, the advantages and disadvantages of these teaching methods; and third, to demonstrate high school teaching situations in which it is appropriate to employ these teaching methods. Within this chapter we discuss (a) pedagogical tools: games, the CS-Unplugged approach, rich tasks, concept maps, classification, and metaphors; (b) different forms of class organization; and (c) mentoring software project development.

Types of Questions in Computer Science Education

As in the teaching of any discipline, computer science teachers are expected to vary their teaching methods, and therefore this pedagogical issue should be included in the MTCS course. This chapter focuses on how to achieve this pedagogical target by using different types of questions. It explores and discusses different types of questions that computer science educators (middle and high school teachers as well as university instructors) can use in different teaching situations and processes: in the classroom, in the computer lab, as homework, or in tests. The chapter lays out also the advantages of using a variety of question types both for learners and teachers, and focuses on the design process of different question types. Though the types of questions presented are mainly related to programming assignments, most of them are suitable also for other computer science contents.

An Israeli-Russian collaboration of ideas

This work describes a joint Israeli-Russian project, where Israeli high school Computer Science (CS) teachers promote a curriculum reform based on the Israeli CS high school curriculum, in the Russian region of Penza. The reform involves local schools, universities, the Hi-Tech industry and the local government officials. It includes changes of textbooks and other teaching materials and workshops for the Russian teachers.

Supporting high school computer science teachers in writing academic papers

A unique project was conducted with leading high school computer science (CS) teachers with no previous experience in academic writing. The idea was to support such teachers and help them prepare and submit a paper or poster to an academic conference as a soft introduction to the academic world.

Sharing computer science education ideas: Israeli-Russian collaboration

This article describes a unique Israeli-Russian project, in which Israeli high school computer science (CS) teachers promote curricular reform in the Russian region of Penza, based on the Israeli high school CS curriculum. The reform involves local schools, universities, the hi-tech industry and local government officials. It includes changes in courses, textbooks and other teaching materials. The Israeli teachers provided workshops to assist the Russian teachers in the assimilation of the reform. This collaboration may encourage other countries to collaborate and not necessarily re-invent the wheel; for some countries it can serve as a catalyst to assist in bringing computer science education into schools.