Valentina Dagienė

It’s Computational Thinking! Bebras Tasks in the Curriculum

Bebras is an award-winning, international contest and challenge in informatics that has been running for 12 years in primary and secondary schools, with 50 countries now participating. From a single contest-focused annual event the Bebras developed to a multifunctional challenge; an activities-based educational community-building network has grown up where the development of Bebras tasks has taken a very significant role. Bebras tasks present a motivating way to introduce computer science concepts to students as well as developing computational thinking skills. Tasks are categorized in terms of the concepts being covered, and each task includes an explanation of how the task relates to informatics. In this paper we propose that Bebras tasks can be used within the school curriculum (whether it is called informatics, computer science, computing or information technology) to promote computational thinking and provide teaching materials. We give examples of Bebras tasks that could be incorporated into the curriculum, and make recommendations for schools wishing to develop children’s computational thinking skills.

Informatics education for new millennium learners

The stage of the 21st century education technologies is specified by the technology development level, dependence of economics on information technologies and computer network progress. Technical and educational training aids have a pronounced influence on the training activity. Computer instructional aids, computer networks, virtual computer environments perform all the main didactical functions; impart the new worksheet, help to consolidate it, aid in solving problems, accumulates feedback, and locate the learning difficulty. Currently educators are active in defining what 21st century competencies are and how they can be efficiently integrated into existing educational systems. Informatics education was begun at schools of many countries almost 50 years ago, but with the onset of this millennium it slackened due to the need for use of technologies in practice. Now the revival is in process: education policy makers of different countries note that informatics education can markedly improve the competencies of the 21st century learners. The paper deals with these issues and tries to search for possible answers.

Promoting Inclusive Informatics Education Through the Bebras Challenge to All K-12 Students

A Bebras challenge is an international network on informatics education for all K-12 students. Participation in the Bebras challenge provides opportunities for learning basic informatics education concepts and understanding deeper information and communication technologies. Based on the results of the last year Bebras contest in Lithuania, some problems on teaching informatics through solving high quality informatics concept-based tasks are brought forward and discussed. Future work concerning the improvement of informatics education is discussed as well.

Students’ Success in the Bebras Challenge in Lithuania: Focus on a Long-Term Participation

The paper deals with students’ participation in the Bebras challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking in Lithuania in 2010–2015. As noticed, secondary school students have an opportunity to learn the basic informatics concepts during the participation in the Bebras challenge. Analyses of a large amount of data from participants’ task solving records are provided. Additionally, observation of the task difficulty level of the Bebras contest in the past 6 years is presented. The target group, on which a research study was focused, is a group of students who solved tasks 6 years in turn. A detailed overview of their results provides an understanding how the participants have solved tasks over these years. The importance of algorithmic thinking as an opportunity for students to learn and understand the basics of informatics as well as develop their computational thinking skills is emphasised. The results of data analysis highlight the importance of students’ achievements by a long-term participation.

Python for scientific computing education: Modeling of queueing systems

In this paper, we present the methodology for the introduction to scientific computing based on model-centered learning. We propose multiphase queueing systems as a basis for learning objects. We use Python and parallel programming for implementing the models and present the computer code and results of stochastic simulations.

Text Input on Mobile Devices from Cultural and Educational Aspects

Tablet computers and other mobile devices are widely used in education and other life activities. However, touch screen keyboards are not adapted to languages using alphabets with more letters than the English alphabet has. In this paper, we analyze the existing keyboards on such devices for various languages, influence of keyboard usability on the number of typing errors, and propose keyboard design guidelines for non-English languages. As an example, the layout for the Lithuanian language keyboard (32 native letters and 3 foreign letters) has been presented here. The described solution is not strictly related to the peculiarities of the Lithuanian language alphabet (apart from the number of letters), therefore it is suitable for other languages using a similar number of letters.

On Preferences of Novice Software Engineering Students: Temperament Style and Attitudes Towards Programming Activities

Educators’ experience shows that learning programming is in many aspects problematic for novice software engineering students. On the other hand, software engineering processes and the view of programming has been changing during the recent years. In this paper, we address socio-cognitive aspects of computer science and software engineering in order to contribute to programming education enhancement: the research is focused on students’ temperament style and favorite programming learning activities. The study of 158 first and second year students, studying programming specialties in five higher education institutions, has been presented. The “psychological portrait” of the surveyed students reflects the evolution of the temperament style in programming during last decades. The attitudes towards the programming activities, presented in this paper, may contribute to the development of enhancement of existing programming courses in higher education.

Pagrindinio ugdymo Lietuvos mokinių matematinių gebėjimų tyrimas

The assesment of the mathematics achievements of pupils in Lithuanian primary education (lower secondary schools) is a topical issue. The paper deals with Lithuanian standardized math tests for 8th graders and the international PISA survey of 15-year-old students. The survey on investigating the students’ mathematical abilities, together with the factors influencing them, was conducted. Some information on the learning outcomes is provided. We have focused on explaining how standardized mathematical tests are made using the item response theory (IRT). In addition, how the Rasch model is applied to count the results of the PISA survey. The results of the 8th grade standardized tests in mathematics of 2015 and the PISA surveys of 2012, as well as the PISA 2015 mathematical literacy results, are all discussed. Some samples of set of tests are provided and further analyzed.

Resurgence of Informatics Education in Schools

Five decades ago, computing at several high schools was consistent with the academic and professional world. Nowadays, many countries have started to think about how to establish or re-establish informatics education in schools and how to attract children to learn informatics. Although informatics is not taught as a discipline in many countries, children are invited to participate in different contests and competitions in informatics, programming, or robotics organized all over the world. Educators are interested in motivating students to learn more about informatics, to understand informatics concepts, and to develop computational thinking. This paper discusses informatics education through the recent decades with its main focus on Logo activities and other strategies which support deeper understanding and promote attractive approaches of learning informatics in school. The worldwide Bebras informatics challenge is presented and discussed as an example of connecting formal and non-formal informatics education by using thousands of tasks based on informatics concepts and applying problem-solving strategies. As a case study, the statistical data from the 2017 Lithuanian Bebras challenge is presented and discussed.

Informatics Based Tasks Development in the Bebras Contest Management System

The paper deals with the contest management system (CMS) of the International Bebras challenge on Informatics and Computational Thinking. The challenge is established in 2004 in Lithuania with the aim to engage children in learning Informatics (Computer Science or Computing). Started as a single annual contest on Informatics in a few countries, the Bebras challenge has upraised to over 50 countries and successfully developed a worldwide network of Informatics educators. The challenge is one of informatics activities provided for students during informatics lessons. The paper overviews various contest-based learning environments used to engage student’s in learning informatics, discusses the main features of activities development and illustrates how Bebras CMS is used for purposes of challenge management in Lithuania. This is demonstrated through the description of a system architecture, functionality and tasks development.