Communications of the ACM

˲ 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-