The document discusses the challenge of training primary and secondary teachers in computer programming. It notes the growing trend of integrating informatics into pre-university education across countries. However, informatics is still marginal in Spain. There is a need to train teachers in programming foundations. The recommendations are to provide all students with digital literacy education by age 12 and informatics as an independent subject. A large-scale teacher training program is needed, involving school teachers paired with academics and industry experts. Effective training approaches include adapting programming lectures and exercises to different learners and languages. Preliminary results show good acceptance of these methods but challenges remain in fully developing and fine-tuning the training approaches.

1. The challenge of training Primary
and Secondary teachers in
computer programming
. J. Ángel Velázquez-Iturbide
Laboratory of Information technologies in Education (LITE)
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

2. • There is a strong, universal trend toward integrating
informatics into preuniversity studies:
• Strong differences among different countries
• Informatics is a marginal discipline in Spain, hardly
differentiated from digital competency
• …however, it is not wild to think that this will change in the
future, perhaps by influence of the European Union
• There is a need to train teachers in the foundations of
informatics:
• Mainly, but not only, on programming
Introduction

3. • In Europe, Informatics for All identifies four major
recommendations (i.e., challenges):
• All students should benefit from education in digital literacy, starting
from an early age and mastering the basic concepts by age 12
• All students should benefit from education in informatics as an
independent scientific subject, studied both for its intrinsic intellectual
and educational value and for its applications to other disciplines
• The definition of informatics curricula should rely on the
considerable body of existing work on the topic and the specific
recommendations of the present report
• A large-scale teacher training program should urgently be started. To
bootstrap the process in the short term, creative solutions should be
developed involving school teachers paired with experts from
academia and industry
Introduction

4. • In Europe, Informatics for All identifies four major
recommendations (i.e., challenges):
• All students should benefit from education in digital literacy, starting
from an early age and mastering the basic concepts by age 12
• All students should benefit from education in informatics as an
independent scientific subject, studied both for its intrinsic intellectual
and educational value and for its applications to other disciplines
• The definition of informatics curricula should rely on the considerable
body of existing work on the topic and the specific recommendations of
the present report
• A large-scale teacher training program should urgently be started.
To bootstrap the process in the short term, creative solutions
should be developed involving school teachers paired with experts
from academia and industry
Introduction

5. • The word “teachers” group several collectives with
distinct features:
• Primary Education teachers are general-purpose teachers,
without specific vocation or training in STEM
• Secondary Education teachers are more specialized, graduate
teachers:
• In Spain, the specialization most relevant to our concern is “Informatics
and Technology”, with students from heterogenous engineering grades
(from Architecture or Agriculture to Informatics)
• Training should consider:
• Pre-service teachers: undergraduates in Primary Education, graduates
enrolled in the Master for Secondary Education Teacher Training
• In-service teachers: formal education with accredited courses
The challenge of training teachers

6. • Currently, teaching programming in several formal
studies:
Actions at the URJC by the LITE
Undergraduate studies on
Childhood and Primary Education
Mandatory course “The
ICTs in Education”
1st academic year,
second semester
• Digital competency, with program-
ming integrated into the last part
• 10 hours out of 60 (i.e., 2.5 weeks)
• Block-based programming
Master studies on Secondary
Education Teacher Training
Course “Didactics of
informatics and
technology”
One year • Both programming and didactics
• Block-based, textual and web
programming
Course “Complements
for training”
Second semester • Textual and mobile programming
Master studies on Digital
Competency and Computational
Thinking
Course “Programming I” First semester • Block-based and mobile programming
Course “Programming II” Second semester • Textual and web programming

7. • Main training difficulty:
• How to trade-off the difficulty of learning programming with limitations of
time
• Effective approaches used at college level:
• They are intended for textual languages
• They must be adapted to different learners and programming languages
• Approaches being explored:
• Lecture notes on apparently “easy-to-learn” languages
• Emphasis on the effect of executing each statement
• Combined use of:
• Short exercises aimed at enhancing the understanding
• Open projects as assignment aimed at fostering motivation and creativity
• Pair programming
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8. • Preliminary results:
• Good acceptance and enhanced performance using lectures
notes and exercises
• Qualitative analysis of assignments report on the most difficult
programming constructs
• Challenges:
• Development of lecture notes adapted to each period of sudy and
each profile
• Development of comprehensive collections of exercises
• Need of fine-tuning the different approaches
• Need to develop new educational and programming tools
Actions at the URJC by the LITE

9. Thank you very much!
¡Muchas gracias!