How are teachers preparing for the new Computing curriculum, which is due to start being taught in September 2014? Some time ago I created an online survey in order to ascertain the answer to this question. Although there have been fewer respondents than I’d hoped for (though probably more than I’d expected), the results are quite interesting. Here is a very brief summary.
Things could be worse: imagine having to teach programming on this! Picture by James Vaughn https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one
My longer-term aim is to publish all the responses for which I have permission to do so. I’d like to do so in the form of an ebook, which will be free to download. But as that is a fair amount of work, I’d prefer to wait until I receive a few more responses. (The amount of time taken to mail-merge and format etc doesn’t increase proportionately to the number of entries.)
If you would like to contribute, please complete the survey here:
Computer Education Projects Book form.
- Most responses have been from secondary teachers (approx 70%)
- Many schools are adopting a project-based learning approach. Perhaps surprisingly, this is not confined to secondary schools.
- Some schools are adding computing to what they are already doing.
- In some schools, the teachers have been preparing themselves for a while, by skilling themselves in computing, and adapting the curriculum (they could clearly see the writing on the wall).
- In several schools, teachers have been worried about the new curriculum, and have been teaching themselves coding using books and online resources. Part of the ebook I’m planning will include a list of the resources people have cited -- with links of course!
- I get the impression that many schools have regarded the new curriculum as an opportunity to be innovative and a bit more daring. Perhaps it’s because of the minimalistic nature of the Programme of Study (ie less seemingly prescriptive than the old one), I don’t know.
I know that this summary is not quantitative, but I just wanted to give you a flavour of some of the responses so far. It would be great if you could contribute your thoughts and ideas too. Just to remind you, the survey may be found at:
Computer Education Projects Book form.
cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org
Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."
