Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Attitudes Towards Computer Science in Secondary Education: Evaluation of an Introductory Course

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Informatics in Schools: Improvement of Informatics Knowledge and Perception (ISSEP 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9973))

Abstract

Computer science (CS) is not being taught at Czech grammar schools (15–18 years old students). In our effort to change that, we developed and piloted a basic CS course. It introduces the fundamental ideas of CS comprehensively and in relation to existing subjects and real world applications. In this paper we describe the course program briefly and present the part of evaluation that focuses on students’ point of view. We assessed how they perceive the subject of CS in context of other school subjects using a questionnaire with a qualitative and a quantitative part.

It turns out that our approach to CS is considered intellectually very demanding, yet this does not seem to affect other features (interest, usefulness) too negatively. CS does not show extreme values in other measured attributes in comparison to other science subjects.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    With the kind support of Google’s CS4HS program.

References

  1. Framework Education Programme for Secondary General Education (Grammar Schools). Výzkumný ústav pedagogický v Praze, Praha (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bell, T., Witten, I.H., Fellows, M., Adams, R., McKenzie, J.: Computer science unplugged: an enrichment and extension programme for primary-aged children. No. December (2006). http://csunplugged.org/

  3. Bruner, J.S.: The Process of Education, vol. 115. Harvard University Press, Massachusetts (1977)

    Google Scholar 

  4. 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 

  5. Hromkovič, J., Steffen, B.: Why teaching informatics in schools is as important as teaching mathematics and natural sciences. In: Kalaš, I., Mittermeir, R.T. (eds.) ISSEP 2011. LNCS, vol. 7013, pp. 21–30. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24722-4_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Hubwieser, P.: The Darmstadt model: a first step towards a research framework for computer science education in schools. In: Diethelm, I., Mittermeir, R.T. (eds.) ISSEP 2013. LNCS, vol. 7780, pp. 1–14. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-36617-8_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Klopfer, L.: Evaluation of learning in science. In: Bloom, B., Hastings, J., Madaus, G. (eds.) Handbook of Formative and Summative Evaluation of Student Learning. McGraw-Hill, London (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lessner, D.: Jak žáci gymnázia vnímají výuku informatiky jako vědy. In: Didinfo 2013 - Zborník príspevkov. Univerzita Mateja Bela, Banská Bystrica (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Lessner, D.: Informatika pro každého (2015). http://ksvi.mff.cuni.cz/ucebnice

  10. Lessner, D., Vaníček, J.: Bobík učí informatiku. Matematika - Fyzika - Informatika 22(5), 374–382 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Osborne, J., Simon, S., Collins, S.: Attitudes towards science: a review of the literature and its implications. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 25(9), 1049–1079 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Potter, J., Wetherell, M.: Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. Sage Publications Inc., London (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Rambousek, V.: Výzkum informační výchovy na základních školách. Koniáš, Plzen (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Schulte, C., Magenheim, J.: Novices’ expectations and prior knowledge of software development. In: Proceedings of the 2005 international workshop on Computing education research - ICER 2005, New York, USA, pp. 143–153. ACM, New York, October 2005

    Google Scholar 

  15. Schwill, A.: Fundamental ideas: rethinking computer science education. Learn. Lead. Technol. 25(1), 28–31 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Strauss, A.L., Corbin, J.M.: Basics of Qualitative Research, 2nd edn. Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Taub, R., Armoni, M., Ben-Ari, M.: CS unplugged and middle-school students’ views, attitudes, and intentions regarding CS. Trans. Comput. Educ. 12(2), 8: 1–8: 29 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  19. Zahorec, J., Haskova, A., Munk, M.: Quality of education in programming in results of students’ rating. In: Proceedings of WSEAS International Conference. Recent Advances in Computer Engineering Series, pp. 177–182. WSEAS, Paris (2012)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Charles University, Prague, Czechia

    Daniel Lessner

Authors
  1. Daniel Lessner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Lessner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Ljubljana , Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Andrej Brodnik

  2. University Paris-Saclay , Cachan, France

    Françoise Tort

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Lessner, D. (2016). Attitudes Towards Computer Science in Secondary Education: Evaluation of an Introductory Course. In: Brodnik, A., Tort, F. (eds) Informatics in Schools: Improvement of Informatics Knowledge and Perception. ISSEP 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9973. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46747-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46747-4_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46746-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46747-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics