=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2755/paper10
|storemode=property
|title=The new computer science curriculum in Poland - challenges and solutions
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2755/paper10.pdf
|volume=Vol-2755
|authors=Maciej M. Syslo
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/issep/Syslo20
}}
==The new computer science curriculum in Poland - challenges and solutions==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2755/paper10.pdf
The new computer science curriculum in Poland
– challenges and solutions1
Maciej M. Sysło1
1
Warsaw School of Computer Science, Warsaw, Poland
syslo@ii.uni.wroc.pl
Abstract. The new computer science curriculum has been introduced in Poland
in 2017 (for primary schools) and in 2019 (for high schools). In this paper we
first describe the building blocks of the curriculum and discuss the challenges
we face. Then we focus on the curriculum for high schools and present how
project based learning (PBL) supported by a flipped learning strategy can be
used to organize content described in the curriculum and students’ learning
computer science integrated with other (school) subjects. Today when schools
are closed and the near future is not certain, these two approaches become very
important ways of teaching and even more important for students to learn at
distance in a virtual environment.
Keywords. Computer science curriculum structure, curriculum implementation,
flipped learning, project based learning (PBL), virtual environment
1 Introduction
The changes in the computer science education for all grades in K-12 have been the
subject of nationwide proposals and discussions in Poland in 2014-20162. Finally, the
new national core curriculum for computer science (CS)3 has been introduced to pri-
mary schools (K-8 grades; age 6-15) in September 2017 and to high schools and vo-
cational schools (9-12/13 grades; age 15-19/20) in September 2019, after the curricu-
lum has been approved by the Ministry of National Education in 2017 and 2018,
respectively.
1 Supported by a grant from Google.
2 The new computer science curriculum benefits very much from our experience in teaching
computer science in schools in Poland for more than 30 years (see [9] and [11]).
3 In Poland, the subject is called informatics (pl. informatyka), however the term “informatics
education” (pl. edukacja informatyczna) refers to any use of computers, informatics, and ICT
in education (including ICT in other non-informatics subjects) as educational tools and
methods. Computer science education (pl. kształcenie informatyczne) refers to rigorous learn-
ing and teaching computer science, it also contributes to general informatics education across
other subjects as a tool and as an approach to problem solving.
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Computer science is a compulsory subject in primary schools (1-8 grades) – at
least 1 hour a week for 8 years, and in high schools (9-11 grades) – at least 1 hour a
week for 3 years. Moreover, students in high schools (9-12 grades) may additionally
choose computer science as one of the elective subjects taught according to the ex-
panded curriculum for at least 2 hours a week for 4 years. The final examination (pl.
matura) is also offered in computer science and recently it became quite popular
among high school students.
In the European Union terminology (see [5]) computer science (informatics) edu-
cation is included in the digital education which is to develop school learners’ digital
competences. There are three main ways to integrate this area within school curricula:
(1) as a cross-curricular theme; (2) as a separate subject; (3) integrated into other
subjects. The current core curriculum of the education system in Poland combines two
approaches (2) and (1) with (2) – as a compulsory separate subject in K-12 and (1) –
as a suggested cross-curricular and integrated approach in other, non-informatics
subjects.
In the next section we present the computer science curriculum in more details and
discuss the challenges which arise in its implementation and then in Section 3 we
discuss our approach to teaching computer science all high school students, most of
whom may not be interested in a career in IT.
2 The new computer science curriculum and its challenges
The curriculum structure
The curriculum consists of separate documents for each school level (grades 1-3, 4-6,
7-8, 9-11+ext.), however Unified aims, which define five knowledge areas in the
form of general requirements, are the same in all these curricula. The most important
are the first two aims and their order in each curricula4: (I) Understanding and anal-
ysis of problems based on logical and abstract thinking, algorithmic thinking, and
information representations; (II) Programming and problem solving by using com-
puters and other digital devices – designing algorithms and programs, organizing,
searching and sharing information, using computer applications. The content of each
aim, defined adequately to the school level, consists of detailed Attainment targets.
Thus, learning objectives are defined that identify the specific computer science con-
cepts and skills students should learn and achieve in a spiral fashion through the four
levels of their education in K-12.
4 The three remaining aims are:
III. Using computers, digital devices, and computer networks – principles of functioning of
computers, digital devices, and computer networks, performing calculations and execut-
ing programs
IV. Developing social competences – communication and cooperation, in particular in virtual
environments, project based learning, taking various roles in group projects
V. Observing law and security principles and regulations – respecting privacy of personal
information, intellectual property, data security, netiquette, and social norms, positive and
negative impact of technology on culture, social life and security.
According to Winch [14] (see also [13]), who identified the constraints for curricu-
lum design, all three major types of knowledge: concepts, propositions and know-how
should be introduced early in the curriculum, because these knowledge types are
dependent on each other. As stated in [13], a promising approach to addressing this
constraint is a spiral curriculum, such as that developed in Poland, where at each level
unified aims are addressed but pedagogically the approach varies across three ele-
ments with the first element more important at lower levels and 2 and 3 become more
important during progression:
1. problem situations, cooperative games, and puzzles that use concrete meaningful
objects – discovering concepts and using heuristics;
2. computational thinking about the objects and concepts (see [2]) – developing algo-
rithms, constructing solutions
3. programming – moving from a visual/block to text-based environment, including
program analysis, its verification and debugging.
The idea of a spiral curriculum is based on Bruner’s theory [3] in which manipulat-
ing real objects in earlier stages of cognitive development is important and later these
may become more abstract representations. When the curriculum spirals upwards
more complex concepts and methods can be introduced. Benefits of such a spiral
curriculum include:
1) enhancement of key concepts and techniques each time the subject of computer
science is revisited;
2) progression from simple concepts to more involved ones;
3) students can be encouraged to recapitulate their previous knowledge and apply
to new problem situations.
This changing emphasis allows for some aspects of progression, critical for com-
puter science, for instance: increasing difficulty of problems; enabling students to
develop their problem-solving skills, moving from block/visual programming envi-
ronments (as advised for K-6 grades) to a text-based environment (in 6-11 grades)
such as C++ or Python (the most popular programming languages in high schools in
Poland).
We are aware of obstacles and challenges and also open questions related to the
implementation of the new computer science curriculum in schools in Poland. Alt-
hough the spiral approach, on which design of our curriculum is based guarantees the
successive development of computer science concepts, methods and know-how
among students, we are not sure that this will sufficiently motivate and engage our
students to learn, study, use, and develop their computer science knowledge, skills,
and competencies of using technology through 11/12 years of schooling. In particular,
although a rigorous computer science requires a solid background in mathematics and
mathematical reasoning, we want to avoid what happens to mathematics education in
schools which with years in school less and less interests students. We shall follow
this aspect in Section 3.
The challenges
The delegates to the UNESCO/IFIP TC 3 Meeting at OCCE in Linz (June 2018)
agreed on the 8 key challenges (see [4] and also [12]), previously identified by the
task force EDUSummIT, that apply to all countries, however with varying importance
at different stages in their processes of curriculum changes and implementation (see
also [7] for some other questions related to rigorous computer science education in
schools). There was also general agreement that the major challenges are:
Challenge 1: Lack of clear understanding of Computer science/Informatics as an
academic discipline.
Challenge 7: Teacher professional development in a newly introduced Computer
Science/Informatics subject is a challenge in quality and quantity.
Regarding Challenge 1, today in Poland computer science is widely recognized by
the society, politicians, and decision makers as an academic discipline (in science and
among technical disciplines); and as a result we observe that computer studies are the
most popular among high school graduates (twice as many graduates choose comput-
er oriented studies than the next popular subject – management).
Regarding Challenge 7, the lack of systematic teacher professional development in
computer science, subject and pedagogical, is indeed the major challenge not only in
Poland but all over the world. We work on improving the situation at university level
for future teachers as well as offering systematic in-service training for working
teachers. Recently, the proposal of the Council for Informatization of Education has
been accepted and the Ministry of National Education will sponsor three types of in-
service courses run by computer science departments at 7 universities: (1) for teachers
of other subjects who will get a computer science teacher certificate (360 h); (2) for
computer science teachers on implementation of the new computer science curricu-
lum (120 h); (3) for teachers of elementary education (1-3 grades) who graduate from
pedagogical faculties and are not prepared to teach computer science youngest kids.
The Ministry of National Education is also implementing a number of projects to
enable teachers of other subjects to participate in various forms of further education
for the improvement of their digital competences.
Let us also mention here:
Challenge 8: Identifying and allocating the additional resources for teaching Com-
puter Science/Informatics.
This challenge is concerned with allocating digital resources to teach computer
science and in some sense is closely related to Challenge 1. The education system in
Poland was in some sense “ready” for the new computer science curriculum. In par-
ticular, (1) the subject has been taught in schools in Poland (under various names) for
more than 30 years (see [11) and recently as an independent subject on each level of
education in K-12; (2) therefore schools employ teachers who teach such subjects –
they only need now an extra in-service training to meet the requirements of the new
curriculum, especially on algorithmics and programming; (3) all schools have been
equipped with basic hardware and software and are connected to the Internet; and (4)
the most important and encouraging is the enthusiasm and readiness of school stu-
dents on all education levels to learn how to program and use programming skills in
various subjects and environments, such as robotics, games, computer science and
ICT competitions, and to enhance competencies in computer science, and digital
competencies in general.
In the next section we focus on two other Challenges 5 and 6 with regard particu-
larly to computer science education in high schools in Poland. The remaining Chal-
lenges are discussed in [4], also with respect to Poland.
3 The new computer science curriculum in high schools
The following issues appear when implementing the new computer science cur-
riculum in high schools, in particular in Poland, see [9, 10]:
1. A class in a high school may consist of students coming from various primary
schools.
2. Challenge 5 based on [4]: The previous computer science curriculum has deliv-
ered poorly prepared students for computer science in higher (tertiary) education.
3. Challenge 6 based on [4]: Integrating computer science across other subjects in
school is ineffective in practice.
We shall shortly comment on the first two issues and then present our approach to
the third one.
Regarding the first issue above, computer science in high schools should formally
be a spiral continuation of the subject under the same name taught in primary schools.
However students coming to a particular class at a high school may come from vari-
ous primary schools in which computer science lessons covered the curriculum not
completely. We observe that some of the curriculum topics (especially those on algo-
rithmics and programming) are not touched mainly due to the lack of subject
knowledge and pedagogical preparation of teachers in primary schools,. In such cases,
computer science teachers in high schools have to somehow repair a “broken spiral”
of knowledge development by, for instance, special exercises and tasks which will
connect the gap between the knowledge acquired in primary schools and expected
level of knowledge in the area of broken spiral. We provide teachers with a variety of
such tasks and methodological advices how to handle such cases. In our guide book
for teachers, a topic from the high school computer science curriculum is augmented
by adding tasks which play a role of introduction to this topic (a kind of warm-up)
and are supposed to be covered, according to the curriculum, in primary school. Such
tasks play also a role of reminder for students who met this topic in primary school.
We hope that the situation will improve regarding the first issue when a computer
science examination (elective in the beginning) will be introduced at the end of prima-
ry schools. A proposal of such an exam has been submitted to the Ministry of Nation-
al Education by the Council for Informatization of Education.
The second issue is much more complex to be easily solved by schools and tertiary
institutions. As mentioned earlier, computer science studies at tertiary education insti-
tutions are very popular among high school graduates in Poland. Last year more than
40 thousands graduates applied for such institutions, however only 7 thousands of
them took the final high school examination (pl. matura) in computer science. This
may be interpreted that more than 30 thousands of graduates chose a career in com-
puter science/IT not thinking about it earlier (in primary and high school) and not
verifying their preparation for such study by taking the matura exam. To solve this
issue we have proposed to tertiary education institutions to introduce an entrance
examination in computer science. However such institutions are fully independent,
especially in the private sector, and their main goal is to have as many students as
possible regardless of the level of their preparation to study in computer science relat-
ed areas. A much better situation is with graduates from vocational schools in the area
of technology.
Finally we address the third issue, Challenge 6 from [4] and propose a solution
which is now implemented in high schools in Poland.
The situation described in Challenge 6 as we observe in Poland is mainly due to:
(1) the lack of integration of computer science (not ICT) with other subjects in the
subjects’ curricula and (2) the lack of basic computer science (not ICT) knowledge
among teachers of other subjects. Unfortunately (see [8]), in Poland there has been no
positive change in these two factors for last (20) years and we are very pessimistic
about any change which might happen in the near future. Therefore, we have decided
not to wait for any change in other subjects and their teachers and we propose the
integration of other subjects with computer science within computer science lessons.
We implement and propose to use project based learning (PBL) as the main ap-
proach to organize content (to meet the computer science curriculum requirements)
and to organize students’ learning. PBL provides authentic, real-world contexts for
learning, allows students to discover and recognize connections between various
subjects and application areas, and also supports personal learning by leaving to stu-
dents the freedom to choose projects and the way they explore various topics. Stu-
dents, individually or collaborating in a group, are also more engaged to learn when
they get a challenging project, as opposed to working chapter by chapter of a text-
book. In the implementation of this approach we advise teachers and students that the
most convenient and effective way to meet the expected outcomes is to use also a
flipped learning methodology (see [1], [6]) – in the classroom students learn what
the projects are and what they have to accomplish and most of the work they do off
the classroom as a kind of homework, collaborating with other students, communi-
cating with teachers of computer science and other subjects and getting their advices.
The computer environment as an independent platform has been designed to ac-
commodate all educational materials, working procedures for teachers and students,
and communication channels needed to organize the work of teachers and students
according to the PBL strategy. There is also a place for collecting completed projects.
The platform consists of three main sections:
1. Project proposals
2. Working space
3. Repository of completed projects
The platform will be open to all teachers and schools, however the main focus will
be put on projects in computer science education in high schools and in vocational
schools. A teacher in discussion with students chooses a project (in Section 1) for
them, then students work on the project (in Section 2), and after they complete the
project, its version, approved by the teacher, is put into the repository (Section 3). We
now briefly comment on each section.
Ad 1. This section contains project proposals presented in a unified form. A project
description contains: its goals (themes) with regard to computer science and other
school subjects, motivating arguments (why the project is interesting and important),
expected project outcomes (results), number of students in a team, time windows for
its realization, suggested road map of the project, sample materials needed to com-
plete the project, methods of evaluation and assessments (own and by a teacher).
Themes of projects in this Section come from various school subjects. Some of
them are proposed by the team of the curriculum authors. We are also open on pro-
posals coming from teachers, especially those teaching other subjects. Students’ pro-
posals of projects are also very much welcome since such projects motivate and en-
gage them most. The proposals cover mathematics (computers in doing mathematics),
physics (simulations), chemistry (computer experiments), history (Internet search),
geography (statistical analysis of data), literature (discussion with Umberto Eco),
foreign languages (Google translator and AI), and also physical education (physics of
sport).
Ad 2. This section of the platform helps students to organize their work on a pro-
ject they chose. First they learn in details about the project and its goals, choose a
leader, split among themselves what they have to do, decide about the time schedule
of their activities, establish communication channels. Then the results of their activi-
ties have to be uploaded to the platform in this Section and they fill in final rubrics
regarding their own evaluation of the project, what they have learnt, and how they
grade their achievements. Final grades for the team and for its members come from
the teacher.
Ad 3. The repository contains descriptions of the projects which have been com-
pleted by students so far. A project is presented in the repository in a compact form of
its realizations and outcomes, however with no personal data of students and teachers.
There is an open access to this repository and we strongly encourage teachers and
students to visit the repository and use its projects as teaching materials on various
topics in computer science and, more important, as examples of integrating computer
science tools and methods in other school subjects and disciplines.
Detailed description of our PBL environment for integrating computer science
across other subjects in school will be the subject of another paper and reports. Some
sample projects will discussed in a conference presentation.
Conclusions
In the presented approach to learning computer science in high school by all stu-
dents, also those who are not interested in IT career, students learn computer science
by solving problems coming from various school subjects (disciplines) while, at the
same time, they develop their knowledge in those subjects what contributes to the
integration of computer science with the other subjects. This way, integrating com-
puter science across other subjects in school is more effective due to students' en-
gagement when they are learning computer science.
Presented environment for the PBL used by students in a flipped learning fashion,
is a valuable proposal for implementing computer science (and also other subjects)
curriculum and – more important – provides a virtual environment for students to
learn at distance when schools are closed.
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