How to teach primary
computing
Miles Berry
@mberry | #BETT2015
23 January 2015
ICT teaching
The teaching of ICT was
good or outstanding in nearly
two thirds of the primary
schools visited… The
position was less positive for
ICT in secondary schools,
with just under half of the
schools in the survey judged
good or outstanding.
Ofsted, 2011
CS, IT, DL
Foundations
Applications
Implications
What are we teaching?
Computer science
Software
engineering
Computational
thinking?
The craft of
coding
Theories of learning
Tinkering, making, discussing, connecting,
teaching, practising, debugging
Tinkering
Johann Sperl
Child centred?
“At the heart of the educational process lies the
child.”
“One of the main educational tasks of the
primary school is to build on and strengthen
children's intrinsic interest in learning
and lead them to learn for themselves.”
Plowden, 1967
Creating
Constructionism
Learning as “building knowledge
structures” … happens especially
felicitously in a context where the
learner is consciously engaged in
constructing a public entity, whether
it’s a sand castle on the beach or a
theory of the universe.
Papert, 1991
Discussing
Mind and society
“An interpersonal process is transformed into an
intrapersonal one. Every function in the child’s
cultural development appears twice: first, on the
social level, and later, on the individual level;
first, between people..., and then inside the
child.
Vygotsky, 1978
.
Connecting
Connectivism
The pipe is more important
than the content within the
pipe. Our ability to learn what
we need for tomorrow is more
important than what we know
today... As knowledge
continues to grow and evolve,
access to what is needed is
more important than what the
learner currently possesses.
Siemens, 2005
Teaching
Threshold concepts
Transformative
Irreversible
Integrative
Bounded
Troublesome
Meyer and Land, 2003
import random
for i in range(5):
a = random.randint(1,12)
b = random.randint(1,12)
question = "What is "+str(a)+" x "+str(b)+"?
"
Practising
answer = int(input(question))
if answer == a*b:
print("Well done!")
else:
print("No.")
Spaced repetition
“Researchers advise that the learner should not
repeat immediately the content (or skill), but
wait a few minutes and then repeat”
Debugging
Growth mindset
While people with a fixed
mindset see mistakes as a
dismal failure — a sign that
we aren’t talented enough
for the task in question —
those with a growth mindset
see mistakes as an essential
precursor of knowledge, the
engine of education.
Lehar 2011, qv Mueller and Dweck, 1998
Evidence for what works
Visible learning
The biggest effects on
student learning occur when
teachers become learners of
their own teaching, and
when students become their
own teachers.
Hattie, 2008
Visible learning
The use of computers is more effective
when:
● There is a diversity of teaching
strategies.
● There is teacher pre-training in the
use of computers as a teaching and
learning tool.
● There are multiple opportunities for
learning.
● The student, not the teacher, is in
control of the learning.
● Peer learning is optimised.
● Feedback is optimised.
Hattie, 2009
Education Endowment Foundation
Discovery methods
Enthusiasm for ‘discovery learning’
is not supported by research
evidence, which broadly favours
direct instruction (Kirschner et al,
2006). Although learners do need to
build new understanding on what
they already know, if teachers want
them to learn new ideas, knowledge
or methods they need to teach them
directly.
Coe et al, 2014 qv CAS 2014
Ofsted’s expectations?
Outstanding teaching?
High expectations
Enabling exceptional learning
Intervening with impact
Effective and cohesive English and
maths
Authoritatively impart knowledge
High levels of commitment
Well judged and imaginative
teaching strategies
Match individual needs
Ofsted, 2014
ICT Mark
Teaching enables most pupils to use and
develop all aspects of their ICT capability
through a wide range of experiences and
contexts that are consistently matched to their
needs, abilities and learning preferences.
Becta / Naace
Lessons from the craft of
software development?
The craft of teaching
The imperative for teaching is
that learners develop their
personal knowledge and
capabilities… It is closer to the
kind of science, like engineering,
computer science, or
architecture, whose imperative it
is to make the world a better
place: a design science.
Laurillard, 2012
Waterfall methodology
1. Requirements
2. Design
3. Implementation
4. Verification
5. Maintenance
Image CC by Hamed Saber
Nick Gibb
“And I will count it as a
success when teachers are
able actually to laminate
their lesson plans and
recycle them from
September to September.”
Nick Gibb, May 2012
Planning
Evaluating
Teaching
Assessing
Design
Evaluate
Code
Test
Agile
Following a plan
Responding to
change
Contract negotiation
Customer
collaboration
Comprehensive
documentation
Working software
Processes and tools
Individuals and
interactions
Craftsmanship
Responding to
change
Steadily adding
value
Customer
collaboration
Productive
partnerships
Working software
Well crafted
software
Individuals and
interactions
Community of
professionals
Cross curricular
computing?
Computing
A high-quality computing education equips
pupils to use computational thinking and
creativity to understand and change the world.
DfE, 2013
Architects or bricklayers?
Programming = Algorithms +
Code
Why Programming?
the practical experience of
programming, [is] almost
certainly the best way for
primary pupils to learn about
computer science
Berry, 2013
Some cross-curricular projects
Phonics and text to speech / speech to text
The journey of a packet
HTML and document structure
Make a clock
Teach fractions to a computer
Make an interactive toy
Cookery
Drill and practice games
The history of communication
Further reading...
Questions?
@mberry
[email protected]
milesberry.net
These slides: bit.ly/bettteachcomp