Dissertation:competency-based_informatics_education_in_primary_and_lower_secondary_schools
Pasterk (2020) Competency-Based Informatics Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools (Dissertation)
Referenz
Pasterk, Stefan: Competency-Based Informatics Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools. Dissertation, University of Klagenfurt, 2020
Publikation
Zusammenfassung
Computer science and digital media are playing an increasingly important role in schools and education. In Austria, the subject ’Computer Science’ has been anchored in the 9th grade for many years. Additionally, the subject ’Basic Digital Education’ is introduced in the first years of secondary education. More and more countries start to teach related topics in the early years of education. For this reason, a number of curricula, educational standards and competency models for computer science and related topics in primary and secondary schools have emerged in recent years. Due to the many different school systems and organizational structures, the documents differ in several aspects. Some of them are described in great detail, while others only give hints about the content to be taught. Also, the basic theory can be different although most models rely on outcome-based education. If teachers, curriculum developers and researchers base their work on more than one specific curriculum, they have their difficulties in the identification of important concepts of computer science related topics. The differences of the educational models make a comparison a complex task as well.
The graph-based approach presented in this dissertation provides a possible solution to analyze and compare curricula and to identify central competencies as well as suitable learning paths. For the approach seven selected curricula, educational standards, and competency models are mapped to individual graphs. The nodes represent the learning outcomes, called competencies, and the edges show two different types of dependency relations between them: expands and requires. Based on graph-theoretic metrics resulting graphs are analyzed and compared. Centrality measures are used to determine central competencies. Competencies which occur in similar form in different curricula act as linking points to combine the individual graphs to one generic model of competencies called Generic, Graph-Based Model for Competencies (GGBMC). With this model it is possible to display learning paths for targeted competencies and optimize them for different purposes.
In addition to the graph-based approach software tools are presented which automatically support the necessary steps to identify relations between competencies and to combine individual graphs. These tools are based on the linguistic features of the competency formulations and natural language processing. To enable the evaluation, a technical implementation of the approach on an online platform called Graph-based Environment for Competency and Knowledge-Item Organization (GECKO) is developed and with the project Lakeside IT-Curriculum a use case for the graph-based approach is presented. In the first phase a curriculum for kindergarten and the first years of education is developed based on learning paths in the GGBMC. The results are discussed and evaluated by educators.
It turns out that the graph-based approach serves successfully for the purpose of analyzing and comparing curricula and their learning outcomes. Additionally, it supports the identification of central competencies and the determination of learning paths for different situations. The developed software tools automatically support the time-consuming process of generating and organizing the model and provide an online platform to apply it.