Skip to main content

Introducing Informatics in Primary Education: Curriculum and Teachers’ Perspectives

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 11913))

Abstract

Informatics and especially its nowadays leading part, computational thinking, becomes an important and universal competence within the debate on 21st century skills and addresses the concepts and learning goals of Informatics (Computing or Computer Science). There are initiatives appearing worldwide that tend to include Informatics into early education. In this paper, we analyze implementation of Informatics as well as developing computational thinking competence on a primary school level. We survey the situation on Informatics in primary education in different countries (52 countries included), discuss the structure of draft curriculum for Informatics in primary education developed in Lithuania, and study primary teachers’ readiness to integrate Informatics into primary education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Change history

  • 11 November 2019

    In the original version of this paper the affiliation was correct only for the author Valentina Dagienė. For authors Tatjana Jevsikova and Gabrielė Stupurienė affiliation has been corrected to:

    Vilnius University Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies, Vilnius, Lithuania.

References

  1. Informatics Education in Europe: Are We All in the Same Boat. Report by The Committee on European Computing Education (CECE) Jointly established by Informatics Europe & ACM Europe (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Informatics for All: The strategy. ACM Europe & Informatics Europe (2018). https://europe.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/public-policy/acm-europe-ie-i4all-strategy-2018.pdf

  3. Wing, J.M.: Computational thinking. Commun. ACM 49(3), 33–35 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wing, J.M.: Computational Thinking: What and Why (2011). http://www.cs.cmu.edu/link/researchnotebook-computational-thinking-what-and-why

  5. European Commission: DigComp into Action. Get inspired, make it happen. A user quide to the European digital competence framework. European Union (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  6. K–12 Computer Science Framework. ACM (2016). http://www.k12cs.org

  7. Manches, A., Plowman, L.: Computing education in children’s early years: a call for debate. Br. J. Educ. Technol. 48(1), 191–201 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Garneli, V., Giannakos, M., Chorianopoulos, K.: Computing Education in K-12 schools: a review of the literature. In: IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), pp. 543–551 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  9. CS Unplugged: Computer Science without Computer (2019). https://csunplugged.org/en/

  10. Dagiene, V., Stupuriene, G.: Bebras – a sustainable community building model for the concept based learning of informatics and computational thinking. Inform. Educ. 15(1), 25–44 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Australian Computing Academy: Coding and Computational Thinking. What is the Evidence? https://education.nsw.gov.au

  12. CAS: Computing in the National Curriculum. A Guide for Primary Teachers (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Heintz, F., Mannila, L., Färnqvist, T.: A review of models for introducing computational thinking, computer science and computing in K-12 education. In: 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Hubwieser, P., Armoni, M., Giannakos, M., Mittermeir, R.T.: Perspectives and visions of computer science education in primary and secondary (K-12) schools. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. 14(2), Article 7 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Education Development Center: Lithuanian Informatics Curriculum Outline. Preschool and Primary Education. Draft, 2019-06-30 (2019). https://informatika.ugdome.lt/lt/biblioteka/dokumentai/. [In Lithuanian]

  16. Jevsikova, T.: School Potential and Readiness to Implement an Integrated Informatics Curriculum in Primary Education. Study Report. Education Development Center (2019). https://informatika.ugdome.lt/lt/tyrimas/ [In Lithuanian]

Download references

Acknowledgement

We would like to express gratitude to the all international experts who took part in the survey on Informatics in primary education for active participation and collaboration. We also thank Education Development Center of Lithuania for the support of the research on primary teacher readiness to introduce Informatics in primary school.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatjana Jevsikova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Dagienė, V., Jevsikova, T., Stupurienė, G. (2019). Introducing Informatics in Primary Education: Curriculum and Teachers’ Perspectives. In: Pozdniakov, S., Dagienė, V. (eds) Informatics in Schools. New Ideas in School Informatics. ISSEP 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11913. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33759-9_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33759-9_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33758-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33759-9

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics