˲ Staff in HEIs can provide expertise and advice to guide developments, such as in advising on relevant curricular standards (detailing
what can and should be taught at different stages of school education).
˲HEIs often are engaged in the
education and training of teachers,
and in their professional development. Their forward thinking can
serve to continually improve teaching expertise; this can happen at the
stage of initial teacher education,
and through continuing professional
development.
˲ Within HEIs, research typically
features strongly, and the Informatics for All strategy stresses the importance of research. In this context,
HEIs might partner with schoolteachers, educationists, and/or others to drive forward relevant research
agendas.
˲ HEIs are a powerful force, perhaps the single most powerful force,
in terms of influencing the delivery of
the curriculum in schools. What are
the requirements for entry to specific
programs of study?
Role of professional bodies and
the EU. Professional bodies, such as
the Council of European Professional
Informatics Societies (CEPIS), will
typically have strong links with industry and will be in a position to effectively harness industrial perspectives; they typically will be recognized
as such by government. It is expected
that they will voice strong views about
the need for informatics education,
especially in relation to the economic development of the country and
workforce planning. Where their
feelings are particularly strong, they
can bring pressure to bear at the governmental level to provide national
resources for teacher training, research, and more. They also may be
able to provide resources to aid education. It would also be desirable to
complement the EU’s Digital Action
Plan with national initiatives, possibly supported by EC resources.
Curriculum issues. Adopting a
completely new subject to a national
school curriculum is challenging for
many reasons. A general but very con-
crete challenge is how to provide the
necessary space in the curricula. We
do not believe that the school system
of 2019 has reached a fixed point with
respect to mandatory subjects; thus,
in whichever way possible, space
must be found. We feel that each
country will have to find her own so-
lution, matching her constraints and
situation.
As mentioned, a curriculum should
include the foundations of the discipline, including theoretical and implementation aspects. Clearly it should
not be just a downgrade of university
curricula, but a curriculum should be
specially designed for each school level
(elementary, middle, and high school).
New curricula research should be conducted to examine and find the appropriate methodology and pedagogy to
design such curricula for the different
levels of school.
Human and Societal Perspectives
Informatics dramatically differs from
other sciences in terms of the way it
empowers. With informatics, there
is powerful support for automating
cognitive tasks15 and this has implications for all domains and professions. Moreover, the related concept
of computational thinking is recognized as having relevance more widely.
2, 17, 18
In Iversen,
13 the concept of computational empowerment is seen as
an important development of computational thinking that places an
emphasis on the abilities needed to
effectively deploy informatics. Based
on a critical analysis of current tech-
The challenge now
for the Informatics
for All Committee
is to bring about
change leading to
the realization of
the strategy.
Informatics for All
The strategy
ACM Europe & Informatics Europe
February 2018