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In the last decade, programming and computational thinking (CT) have been introduced on a large scale in school curricula and standards all over the world. In countries such as the UK, a new school subject—computing—was created, whereas in countries such as Sweden, programming was included in existing subjects, notably mathematics and technology education. The introduction of programming and CT in technology education implies a particular relationship between programming and technology. Programming is usually performed with technological artefacts—various types of computers—and it can also be seen as a specific branch of engineering. This book analyses the background to and current implementation of programming and computational thinking in a Swedish school technology context, in relation to international developments. The various chapters deal with pertinent issues in technology education and its relation to computers and computing, for example, computational thinking and literacy, teachers’ programming competence, and computational thinking, programming, and learning in technology education. The book includes examples from educational research that could also be used as inspiration for school teaching, teacher education and curriculum development

Här redovisas resultat från ett fyraårigt forskningsprojekt om implementeringen av programmering i skolans matematikundervisning. Både lärare och läromedel har studerats och resultaten väcker frågor om satsningen varit så genomtänkt som man hade kunnat önska.

In this chapter, we consider opportunities and challenges of integrating programming in school mathematics by looking closer at the Swedish case. Especially, we aim to unpack how the integration of programming in mathematics can affect students’ opportunities to develop mathematical competencies. Three examples taken from a Swedish research project are described and discussed in detail. In the first example, we focus on differences regarding syntax and semantics in programming and mathematics, relevant in a learning perspective. In the second and third examples, we highlight the teachers’ views of how programming may enhance the traditional learning of school mathematics, and describes one particular lesson where students solve pattern problems in Python. Each example is discussed in relation to different mathematical competencies.

What is different about this book than almost any other in philosophy of education is only three of the contributors are philosophers. All the rest are empirical educational researchers. They are, however, philosophically sophisticated researchers. They are unique in that they rely on philosophy, not the social sciences, to provide their theoretical frameworks and inform their methods of empirical investigation. These chapters may be read as a contribution to what is sometimes called “applied philosophy” by those who do not realize that a philosophy that cannot be applied is nonsense.

I ett pågående forskningsprojekt tittar författarna närmare på programmering som innehåll i skolmatematiken sedan införandet i läroplanen 2018. Här redovisar de hur lärare tolkat uppdraget och vilken roll programmeringen har i de matematiklektioner med programmering som lärarna planerat och genomfört.

Med utgångspunkt i den senaste forskningen diskuterar bokens författare programmeringens inträde i skolmatematiken. Vilken roll har programmeringen i skolmatematiken? Kan elever lära sig matematik genom programmering? Vilka möjliga broar mellan matematik och programmering kan skapas? Vilka är utmaningarna? Diskussionen utgår från elevernas, lärarnas och lärarutbildarnas perspektiv. Innehållet i boken innefattar skolans alla nivåer, från förskola till gymnasiet. Programmering i skolmatematiken vänder sig till blivande och verksamma lärare, och till lärarutbildare, men även till personer med övergripande ansvar för skolans digitalisering på lokal, kommunal eller nationell nivå.

Det avslutande kapitlet i boken sammanfattar de utmaningar och möjligheter som följer av att programmering integreras i matematikämnet. Utifrån Chevallards teori om didaktisk transposition av kunskap beskriver författarna tre olika sätt som lärareatt arbetar med programmering och matematik. Det blir tydligt att programmeringsundervisning i matematik kan komma att skilja sigvariera ganska mycket åt beroende på hur lärarna tolkar relationen mellan matematik och programmering, vilka uppgifter och programmeringsmiljöer de väljer, och vad de ser som syftet med undervisningen. AvI slutningsviset av kapitlet återkopplar författarna till tidigare kapitel för att summera de utmaningar och möjligheter somvad det nya kunskapsinnehållet medför., Vetenskapsrådet, 2018-03865

Efter en kort introduktion om relationen mellan människa och maskin redogör författaren för programmeringens tidiga historia, med referenser till Lovelace och Babbage. Därefter beskrivs de förutsättningar som över tid påverkat både ämnets innehåll och syfte i svensk skola. Enligt författaren handlar programmering om samspelet mellan algoritmer och kod, som ett sätt att tänka och kommunicera med datormaskiner. Vidare menar han att lärares kunskaper om detta samspel är avgörande för att alla elever skall lära sig att människor och maskiner arbetar och tänker olika.

I ett pågående forskningsprojekt tittar författarna närmare på programmering som innehåll i skolmatematiken sedan införandet i läroplanen 2018. Här redovisar de hur lärare tolkat uppdraget och vilken roll programmeringen har i de matematiklektioner med programmering som lärarna planerat och genomfört.

När programmering skulle inkorporeras i skolans arbete valde Sverige i sin läroplansrevidering 2017 att skriva in det i matematikämnet, med stark koppling till algebra. Samtliga matematiklärare ställdes då inför utmaningen att undervisa i programmering. Vi undersöker här resultatet av 32 lärargruppers gemensamma arbete med att planera och genomföra lektioner i programmering i matematik i grundskolan. För att få insikt i hur lärare tolkar uppdraget och transponerar läroplananes beskrivning av programmering till klassrumspraktiken analyserar vi det matematiska innehållet i dessa lektioner samt vilken syn på relationen mellan matematik och programmering som framträder i lärarnas beskrivning av syfte, lärandemål, aktivitet och reflektion. Vi finner att programmeringsaktiviteter i 1/3 av lektionerna inte kopplas till något traditionellt matematiskt innehåll. I övriga lektioner är det främst aritmetik eller geometri som utgör det matematiska innehållet. Få explicita kopplingar görs till algebra förutom till begreppet variabler, men då är det främst variabler inom programmering som avses. I materialet framträder fyra olika relationer mellan matematik och programmering: 1) enbart programmering; 2) matematik som en kontext för programmering; 3) programmering som ett verktyg för att effektivisera beräkningar; 4) programmering som ett verktyg för att utforska matematik. Resultaten diskuteras i relation till matematikämnets syfte och innehåll i den svenska läroplanen., When incorporating programming in the school curricula, Sweden decided to integrate it with mathematics, and specifically within the core content of algebra. As a result, all mathematics teachers at all levels were faced with the challenge of teaching programming. In this study we analyse documentation from 32 lessons studies where groups pf teachers have planned, conducted, and revised lessons on programming within the school subject mathematics. To gain insight into how the teachers interpret the new task and thus contribute to the transposition of knowledge from the curriculum level to the classroom level, we analyse the mathematical content in these lessons and the relations between mathematics and programming that emerge in the way the teachers describe the aim, the activites and the learning outcomes of the lessons. We find that 1/3 of the lessons do not connect to any traditional mathematics content, and the rest of the lessons mostly focus on arithmetic or geometry. Few explicit connectiions are made to algebra, execpt for the variable concept, but when variables are treated the focus is on variables in the programming sense rather than algebra. Four different relationships between mathematics and programming emerge in the data: 1) programming without connecting to mathematics; 2) mathematics as a context for programming, 3) programming as a tool for efficient calculations; 4) programming as a tool for exploring mathematics. The results are discussed relation to the transposition of knowledge of mathematics as a school subject.

Although Computational Thinking and Programming have become obligatory in many national curricula, the majority of teachers in practice are currently in dire need of support from both the research and teaching community. A national research and teacher development project was initiated in Sweden to address this issue. To develop their pedagogical competence in these new subjects, 31 in-service teachers from the project performed lesson studies at their schools. This study collected and analyzed the documentation of 12 lesson studies regarding how computational thinking skills are taught and assessed in K--9, with block-based programming. The study applies a validated CT framework to identify the involved computational thinking skills. The result presents a progression stage scheme for these skills in compulsory schools. The paper also discusses the problems and challenges in the assessment of computational thinking skills.

This research is a full paper problematizing pair programming. The paper highlights how different purposes emerge in a programming activity as three students relate differently to the aesthetic words "ugly" and "efficient". A problematic situation arises when the students pursue separate purposes during the activity, and it proves hard to overcome. This is something the paper discusses by focusing on various disturbances (emotional, intellectual and physical) to highlight the importance of designing collaborative educational activities with a clear-cut purpose, including or excluding the aesthetic value of the code.

Vi står inom några år inför en omfattande lärarbrist och den kommer inte gå att hantera bara genom att öka antalet platser på lärarutbildningarna – kompletterande lösningar behövs där en möjlighet är att få in ämnesexperter i klassrummen, personer som kanske saknar pedagogisk utbildning men kan ha djup kunskap i bristämnen som teknik. Samtidigt får programmering en framskjuten plats i läroplanen vilket leder till stora fortbildningsbehov av lärare. Uppsala universitet har genom pilotprojektet Lärarpar tagit ett grepp om båda dessa frågor. Upplägget i projektet går ut på att pedagogen/läraren får förstärkning i klassrummet av en så kallad ämnesexpert, i det här fallet civilingenjörsstudenter inom IT. Pedagogen och ämnesexperten bildar tillsammans ett Lärarpar. Pilotprojektet har genomförts under 2016 -2017 vid skolor i Uppsala. Totalt har cirka 100 elever i åk 4 till 6 deltagit.

In this article, the development of the Swedish informatics curriculum during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990sis studied and described. The study’s design is inspired by the curriculum theory presented by Lindensj¨oand Lundgren [2000], who suggest using the concept of arenas (the arenas of enactment, transformationand realisation) when discussing curriculum development. Data collection in this study comprises activitiesand actors in the arenas of enactment and transformation. Collected data include contemporary articles,journals, reports, booklets, government documents and archived documents. Findings show that informaticseducation in Sweden evolved from primarily focusing on programming knowledge related to automatic dataprocessing and offered exclusively in vocational education (the 1960s and 1970s) to later (early 1980s) beingintroduced in the upper secondary school curriculum under the heading Datakunskap. The enactment of theinformatics curriculum in 1983 encompassed programming, system development and computing in relationto applied sciences and civics. Mathematics teachers did much of the experimental work. It is shown that thecompetencies of upper secondary school teachers at the time rarely corresponded to the demands of the subject(content knowledge, resources and pedagogical skills). Stereotypical examples were therefore developedto support teachers in instructing about the subject content. When implemented in the theoretical naturalscience-programme, system development/systemisation was transformed into a twofold issue, comprisingvocational attributes and societal aspects of computer programming. The implementation of today’s informaticseducation, including programming in the curriculum, should draw from lessons learned from history.For a successful outcome, this study emphasises the necessity to understand 1) the common incentives forintroducing computer programming in the curriculum, 2) the requirement for teachers’ pedagogical contentknowledge and 3) the st, QC 20150227

In this report we consider the current status of the coverage of computer science in education at the lowest levels of education in multiple countries. Our focus is on computational thinking (CT), a term meant to encompass a set of concepts and thought processes that aid in formulating problems and their solutions in different fields in a way that could involve computers [130]. The main goal of this report is to help teachers, those involved in teacher education, and decision makers to make informed decisions about how and when CT can be included in their local institutions. We begin by defining CT and then discuss the current state of CT in K-9 education in multiple countries in Europe as well as the United States. Since many students are exposed to CT outside of school, we also discuss the current state of informal educational initiatives in the same set of countries. An important contribution of the report is a survey distributed to K-9 teachers, aiming at revealing to what extent different aspects of CT are already part of teachers' classroom practice and how this is done. The survey data suggest that some teachers are already involved in activities that have strong potential for introducing some aspects of CT. In addition to the examples given by teachers participating in the survey, we present some additional sample activities and lesson plans for working with aspects of CT in different subjects. We also discuss ways in which teacher training can be coordinated as well as the issue of repositories. We conclude with future directions for research in CT at school., QC 20151019

In this paper, we present the results from a multi-national study of students’ results in the international IT contest “Bebras”. Be-bras provides motivating and game-like tasks in the format of multiple-choice questions and interactive problems to students in grades 2-12. Our study focuses on the results of nearly 8 000 students aged 10-13 in Finland (n=852), Sweden (n=201) and Lithuania (n=7 022), using gender, task and country as the underlying variables. In addition to presenting the overall results of the three student groups, we also analyse a subset of tasks in common according to Bloom's taxonomy and put forward detailed results for these tasks with regard to gender and country. The results show that there is no difference in performance between boys and girls in this age group. Our findings also indicate that there was a slight mismatch between the difficulty level of the tasks used in the contest and students’ actual abilities; finding more efficient and trustworthy ways of evaluating difficulty levels upfront and choosing a suitable task set is hence important for upcoming contests., QC 20150327

The ways in which informatics is covered in K-12 education vary among European countries. In Finland and Sweden, informatics is not included in the core curriculum, whereas, for example, in Lithuania, all students are exposed to some informatics concepts starting in the fifth grade. Bebras is an annually arranged international informatics contest for K-12 level, resulting in a large collection of data about contestants and their results. In this paper, we analyse contest data from the Finnish, Swedish and Lithuanian 2013 contests, focusing on students'performance on tasks related to algorithmic thinking. Our findings suggest that despite coming from different educational systems, students perform rather similarly on the tasks. The same tasks are difficult and the thinking behind picking an incorrect answer seems rather similar throughout the countries. The analysis also points out that there is a lack of easy questions - this needs to be fixed in order to not risk scaring students away., QC 20150609

According to teachers, the computer programming education dependence on students' logical and analytical abilities (even before the course starts). A majority of teachers also perceive their pedagogy as non-sufficient for students' learning. The paper unravels two types of instruction at upper secondary school; one which emphasizes individual work with programming languages assisted by a teacher, and one which emphasizes students' experiences of learning concepts. Two types of instruction that corresponds to the existence of two groups of teachers during the 1980s; the defenders who perceived learning as based on repeating sequences in a behavioristic manner, and partisans who perceived learning as based on discovery and self-teaching. The paper suggests that instructional design has remained the same, since the beginning of the 1970s, which could be the rationales for the difficulties in learning and teaching computer programming., QC 20131024

The paper elaborates on programming and computing 1970 to 1983 in the Swedish upper secondary school. Articles from contemporary journals and firsthand text sources are used. During that period, programming never qualified as a separate subject; it was a tool for problem solving in engineering, economics, and mathematics, and did become a literacy subject in its own right. Early adopters of computers in education became important pioneers in the production of discourses about “how-to” and “what-to” teach. The diffusion of computer technology was substantiated in a curriculum for computing in natural sciences, which embraced programming.

Poster Abstract

QS 2012

Computing and computers are introduced in school as important examples of technology. Sometimes as a subject matter of their own, and sometimes they are used as tools, but in principle, learning about computers is part of learning about technology. Lately, the subject is being implemented in curricula to explain society’s dependence on programming knowledge and code. However, there are some considerations related to teaching programming, as the questions of what and how to teach highlight different aspects of the learning objective. In phenomenography, intended object of learning (OoL) is suggested to describe the teacher’s perspective on teaching and learning. There is, however, an analytical reduction made in phenomenography, which makes such a construction hard to distinguish in action. To find ways of bridging this reduction and deepen our understanding of teachers’ work, the article discusses the possibility of using von Wright’s theoretical model of logic of events as a complementary analytical tool in search for understanding of the intentions behind such a construction. Two theoretical approaches, phenomenography and logic of events, are deployed upon one teacher’s case to illustrate that the intended OoL is shaped by the teacher’s intentions, such as balancing the importance of theory and practice, using different learning strategies, encouraging learning by trial-and-error and finally fostering collaboration between students for a deeper understanding of the OoL. In conclusion, logic of events interpretations reveals the teacher’s intentions as being complementary to the principles of phenomenography. Understanding of teachers’ intentions contribute to the understanding of the OoL from a teachers’ perspective., QS 2015

Teachers focus on one or several objects of learning (OoLs) in parallel. During the process of teaching and learning,students are invited to share the enacted object of learning (eOoL) as teachers shape the intended object of learning(iOoL). A gap is suggested in the steps going from the iOoL to the eOoL because students have differentprerequisites and ambitions. In laboratory work, theory and practice supposedly interplay to enhance students’learning. This study therefore considers that gap and addresses the following question: “What educational intentionsand expectations do programming teachers express when they (in retrospect) describe their teaching during anassignment on a principle from computer science?” Interviews were conducted with five teachers from differentsites (secondary and tertiary levels). A second-order perspective was used to unravel the expected OoL and theteachers’ intentions. The study reveals the existence of other OoLs in interplay with what is expected to be learnt.The teachers reveal a strong opinion regarding practice as a means for learning theory, as three qualitativelydifferent students’ actions will help the teacher to decide students’ theoretical understanding. Further work issuggested to explore the teachers’ reflections about what materialized in the classrooms and thus gain anunderstanding of the gap., QS 2015