Computer Science Teachers

A High-School Program in Computer Science
Judith Gal-Ezer, Catriel Beeriy, David Harelz and Amiram Yehudaix

http://www.openu.ac.il/Personal_sites/download/galezer/high-school-program.pdf

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"More recently, fueled in part by the invention of computers and their widespread use, the study of computing has bloomed, and Computer Science (CS) is now recognized as an autonomous scientific discipline. Its scope includes the study and analysis of algorithmic processes, their power and limitations (sometimes called algorithmics [K, H]), as well as the design and implementation of computing systems. Its concepts are influencing work in other scientific disciplines, and, as in other scientific revolutions, its central notions and thought styles are becoming widely assimilated. Clearly, a modern high-school curriculum should re°ect this growing importance.

Our interest is far more foundational, and addresses the need to establish CS as an accepted scientific subject on the high-school level of education, to be taught on a par with other sciences, such as biology, physics and chemistry.

However, computing as a scientific discipline, now called computer science (CS), predates the invention of computers.

CS is a relatively young discipline, and CS education is even younger. But it is not only the tender age of our field that causes problems for the educator.

Indeed, the "teacher issue", as we call it, is a very problematic one, and is visible from the start. While there are well-defined requirements for qualifying teachers in most other high-school subjects, the situation in CS is quite diferent. No self-respecting school system will leave its physics or mathematics program in the hands of a self-taught instructor, or one with only high-school education. Yet this is exactly what very often happens in CS programs in many countries. It was only in 1992 that the USA organization NCATE (National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Education) adopted standards for teacher preparation programs, to take efect starting in 1994 [TTK].


As mentioned above, the teacher problem turns out to be one of the main dificulties in implementing the program. The anomaly is that most CS teachers do not have a university degree in computer science. This is unacceptable, and one of the committee's decisions has been to require such a degree from any teacher seeking a permit to teach CS in high-school. Specially, we require a B.Sc. or its equivalent in CS, or an appropriate B.Ed. in CS education. " (...)

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In Portugal since 90's we have university degrees in pre-service computer science courses, and since then many high schools teach computer science to 10-12 years. It's fully accepted that to be a computer science teacher in this years you must have a degree.

Some people are confusing computer science teaching with the so called Technology in Education, teaching CS is different from instrumental use of computers in other fields.

CS is a recent and young discipline with young teachers, but for us young computer science teachers is clear that we need to set focus on the innovation and the establishment of a hand-on project towards future.

Every day life is technology embedded and we need to prepare students to future.

We cannot go forward watching backward. Knowing the past help us facing the future.