Article

What is lacking in curriculum schemes for computing/informatics?

Authors:

Maarten van Veen,

Fred Mulder,

Karel LemmenAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '04: Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Pages 186 - 190

https://doi.org/10.1145/1007996.1008046

Published: 28 June 2004 Publication History

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Abstract

In this paper we elaborate on the work done by IFIP Working Group 3.2 in 1997 and 2002 on various curriculum schemes for computing/informatics. It is the aim of this paper to contribute to this work by bringing in concepts and insights from curriculum research and curriculum theory. This offers an additional view on the curriculum schemes besides the more disciplinary content driven approach that mostly dominates the curriculum work. We analyze three curriculum schemes: Computing Curricula 2001 (CC2001), Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 (ICF-2000) and Career Space (CSP) with two confronting exercises. The first exercise introduces the concepts of planned, enacted, experienced, and hidden curriculum and applies these to the process of development and implementation of curriculum schemes in general. The second exercise positions the three curriculum schemes in a generic set of curriculum components that is being used frequently in, for example, secondary education as well as in other disciplines. It appears that quite a few components are not included. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving the development process of curriculum schemes.

References

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Cutts QKallia MAnderson RCrick TDevlin MFarghally MMirolo CRunde RSeppälä OUrquiza-Fuentes JVahrenhold JLaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)Arguments for and Approaches to Computing Education in Undergraduate Computer Science ProgrammesProceedings of the 2023 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3623762.3633494(160-195)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623762.3633494
Falkner KSentance SVivian RBarksdale SBusuttil LCole ELiebe CMaiorana FMcGill MQuille KIhantola PFalkner N(2019)An International Comparison of K-12 Computer Science Education Intended and Enacted CurriculaProceedings of the 19th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3364510.3364517(1-10)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3364510.3364517
Falkner KSentance SVivian RBarksdale SBusuttil LCole ELiebe CMaiorana FMcGill MQuille KRößling GGiannakos MScharlau BMcDermott RPears ASabin M(2019)An International Study Piloting the MEasuring TeacheR Enacted Computing Curriculum (METRECC) InstrumentProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3344429.3372505(111-142)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2019
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Index Terms

What is lacking in curriculum schemes for computing/informatics?
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education

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Reviews

Reviewer: Gopal K. Gupta

This paper describes work done over several years, by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group on University Education (WG 3.2), on analyzing computing curricula based on educational concepts and insights from curriculum research and curriculum theory. Three curricula have been analyzed: The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)/Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computing Curricula 2001 (CC2001); the IFIP/United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Informatics Curriculum Framework 2000 (ICF2000), developed by WG3.2; and the Career Space (CSP) Curriculum Development Guidelines developed in 2001 by the CSP consortium of 11 major European information communication technology (ICT) companies. The authors appear to be concerned about the apparent diversity of computing offerings in universities, from generalized to more specialized, and from theoretical to more applied. They look for commonality and coherence in this diversity of offerings, in an attempt to find a shared identity for the computing field, and are surprised that the designers of CC2001 and ICF2000 had different approaches, in terms of their view of the field, goals, and the curriculum core and structure. The WG 3.2 meeting in Brazil in 2002 concluded that it was imperative to develop means to compare different curriculum recommendations against some established standards. The authors propose to accomplish this by categorizing curricula into four types (planned, enacted, experienced, and hidden), and by presenting nine elements of curricula components. It is not clear why such computing curriculum comparisons are desirable, and why different approaches to designing computing curricula in terms of their view of the field, goals, and the curriculum core and structure should not be welcome. Given the differences in the US and European educational systems, and the different approaches of the three curricula, it is not surprising that they are quite different. The authors conclude by noting that the most important aspect of curriculum design is to improve the quality of learning. It is, however, not clear just how the proposed comparisons help curriculum designers do that. Online Computing Reviews Service

Access critical reviews of Computing literature here

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Published In

ITiCSE '04: Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

June 2004

296 pages

ISBN:1581138369

DOI:10.1145/1007996

Conference Chair:
Roger Boyle
University of Leeds, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Martyn Clark
University of Leeds, UK
,
Amruth Kumar
Ramapo College of NJ

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 36, Issue 3
September 2004
280 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1026487
Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 28 June 2004

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ITiCSE04: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

June 28 - 30, 2004

Leeds, United Kingdom

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Cutts QKallia MAnderson RCrick TDevlin MFarghally MMirolo CRunde RSeppälä OUrquiza-Fuentes JVahrenhold JLaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)Arguments for and Approaches to Computing Education in Undergraduate Computer Science ProgrammesProceedings of the 2023 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3623762.3633494(160-195)Online publication date: 22-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3623762.3633494
Falkner KSentance SVivian RBarksdale SBusuttil LCole ELiebe CMaiorana FMcGill MQuille KIhantola PFalkner N(2019)An International Comparison of K-12 Computer Science Education Intended and Enacted CurriculaProceedings of the 19th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3364510.3364517(1-10)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3364510.3364517
Falkner KSentance SVivian RBarksdale SBusuttil LCole ELiebe CMaiorana FMcGill MQuille KRößling GGiannakos MScharlau BMcDermott RPears ASabin M(2019)An International Study Piloting the MEasuring TeacheR Enacted Computing Curriculum (METRECC) InstrumentProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3344429.3372505(111-142)Online publication date: 18-Dec-2019
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Vesisenaho MPuhakka HSilvonen JSutinen EVanhalakka-Ruoho MVoutilainen PPenttinen L(2009)Need for study and career counselling in computer scienceProceedings of the 39th IEEE international conference on Frontiers in education conference10.5555/1733663.1733991(1414-1419)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2009
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