Main Lecture room – West Downs 2
Chair: Emma Goto
Time 13.45 – 14.45
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic is currently preparing a new curriculum document, Framework Educational Programme, with two major changes, which are (1) pupil’s digital literacy development, and (2) implementation of a new compulsory subject of Informatics instead of ICT. All these changes are relatively radical and should be put into practice by 2021.
Since October 2017, in a frame of the three-years project «PRIM» (www.imysleni.cz), nine Czech faculties of education have been working closely together to develop and validate teaching materials, guidelines for teaching a new subject of Informatics and for validating these at several selected schools (starting with pre-school centres ending with secondary schools). At the same time, courses and subjects for teachers of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools are being prepared to be ready for the planned curricular changes. All nine faculties of education must innovate study programmes for student teachers of all subjects including ICT and Computer Science. Moreover, since January 2018, all nine faculties have been collaborating on another three-year project «Support for the development of digital literacy» (http://pages.pedf.cuni.cz/digitalni-gramotnost/). Both projects are important not only for the implementation of the Government’s Strategy of Digital Education (MoEYS, 2014), but also for teacher educators, educational technologists, computer or IT specialists from faculties of education in the Czech Republic who collaborate together for the first time after 1989.
Regarding the forthcoming curricular changes, not only educational activities and curriculum changes have a great importance but also research on how pupils of different ages acquire basic informatics concepts. This paper will present the findings of a case study focused on how primary school pupils aged 9-12 acquire, use and understand some programming conditional statements (IF-THEN, IF-THEN-ELSE; REPEAT/ REPEAT-UNTIL).
Resources
MoEYS (2014) Strategie digitálního vzdělávání do roku 2020. Available at: http://www.msmt.cz/uploads/DigiStrategie.pdf.
[embeddoc url=”http://itte.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018_ITTE_Winchester_CERNOCHOVA.pptx” download=”none” viewer=”microsoft”]
Miroslava Černochová graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague in 1982. From 1982-84, she was a PhD. student in the Department of Physics Education at Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. Since 1985, she has been working in the Department of Information Technology and Technical Education at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague. Her PhD. thesis (1989) was dedicated to didactical questions on how to implement the basis of quantum theory when teaching about solid materials in the secondary school curriculum. Her inaugural dissertation (2003), “e-Instruction: instruction supported by ICT, “focused on key pedagogical aspects of ICT applications and on virtual learning environments in the teaching profession.
At the Faculty of Education Dr. Černochová leads a Masters’ Degree study programme, “Teaching of subjects for primary and secondary education – technical and informatics education”. She has responsibility for the curricular design and teaching of a set of compulsory courses focused on Pedagogy of Information Literacy and Informatics Education, ICT in education, e-Learning, Open educational systems and digital resources suitable for (online) education as a part of the Masters Degree Study Programme for student teachers of ICT, Informatics and Technical Education of primary and secondary schools (pupils aged 11 to 19). Since 2017 she is an external examiner of the board of experts for projects focused on the implementation of the Czech Government’s Strategy for Digital Education managed by the Ministry of Education. As Vice-Dean (for Foreign Relations) since 2007, Dr Černochová has been a member of the faculty management team and a member of the scientific (research) committee at the Faculty of Education, Charles University in Prague.