Skip to main content

A Core Informatics Curriculum for Italian Compulsory Education

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 11169))

Abstract

In order to bring informatics, its ideas and ways of thinking of major educational value to all primary and secondary school students, the Italian Inter-universities Consortium for Informatics (CINI), in collaboration with the academic associations who gather together researchers in informatics (GRIN) and computer engineering (GII), has recently proposed a core informatics curriculum for all the levels of compulsory school. This paper summarizes the proposed curriculum, highlights the key underlying motivations, and outlines a possible strategy to ensure that its implementation in schools can be effective.

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

Notes

  1. 1.

    We adopt here the term “Informatics,” more common in continental Europe, instead of “Computer Science” or “Computing”.

  2. 2.

    “Why K-12 computer science?” http://code.org and http://computinginthecore.org.

  3. 3.

    http://cs4all.nyc.

  4. 4.

    http://www.informatics-europe.org/news/434-inf4all.html.

  5. 5.

    In particular, the Italian Ministry has adopted the “Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council” of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning (2006/962/EC).

  6. 6.

    Digital competence is one of the seven broad areas listed in 2006/962/EC.

  7. 7.

    http://www.indicazioninazionali.it/ (in Italian).

  8. 8.

    An English translation of the official proposal [7] is available at https://www.consorzio-cini.it/gdl-informatica-scuola.

References

  1. Barendsen, E., et al.: Concepts in K-9 computer science education. In: Proceedings of the 2015 ITiCSE on Working Group Reports, pp. 85–116. ACM (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bell, T., Alexander, J., Freeman, I., Grimley, M.: Computer Science Unplugged: school students doing real computing without computers. N. Z. J. Appl. Comput. Inf. Technol. 13(1), 20–29 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bellettini, C., Lonati, V., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A., Pedersini, F.: La formazione degli insegnanti della classe 42/A-informatica: l’esperienza dell’università degli studi di milano. In: E questo tutti chiamano informatica: L’esperienza dei TFA nelle discipline informatiche, Collana Manuali, Chap. 4, vol. 14, pp. 53–76. Sapienza Univ. Ed. (2015). In Italian

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bellettini, C., et al.: Informatics education in Italian secondary schools. Trans. Comput. Educ. 14(2), 15:1–15:6 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Boyatt, R., Beynon, M., Beynon, M.: Ghosts of programming past, present and yet to come. In: du Boulay, B., Good, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 25th Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group - PPIG 2014, pp. 171–182 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Burke, Q.: The markings of a new pencil: Introducing programming-as-writing in the middle school classroom. J. Media Lit. Educ. 4(2), 121–135 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  7. CINI: Proposta di indicazioni nazionali per l’insegnamento dell’informatica nella scuola, December 2017. https://www.consorzio-cini.it/index.php/it/component/attachments/download/745. In Italian

  8. Committee on Science Education: Teaching computer science in France: tomorrow can’t wait. Technical report, Institut de France - Académie des Sciences (2013). http://www.academie-sciences.fr/en/Advice-Notes-and-Reports/teaching-computer-science-in-france-tomorrow-can-t-wait.html

  9. Computing at School: Computer science: a curriculum for schools (2012). http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/data/uploads/ComputingCurric.pdf

  10. Department for Education: National curriculum for England: computing programme of study. Technical report, Department for Education (2013). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study

  11. Duchâteau, C.: Peut-on définir une “culture informatique”? Journal de Réflexion sur l’Informatique (Institut d’Informatique, FUNDP, Namur) 23–24, 34–39 (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  12. European Schoolnet: Computing our future: computer programming and coding: priorities, school curricula and initiatives across Europe - Update 2015 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hubwieser, P., Armoni, M., Giannakos, M.N., Mittermeir, R.T.: Perspectives and visions of computer science education in primary and secondary (K-12) schools. Trans. Comput. Educ. 14(2), 7:1–7:9 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kafai, Y.B., Burke, Q.: The social turn in K-12 programming: moving from computational thinking to computational participation. In: Proceeding of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 603–608. ACM (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Mazoyer, J.: Universalité de la notion de calcul. L’enseignement de l’informatique de la maternelle à la terminale, Académie des sciences - workshop (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  16. McCartney, R., Tenenberg, J. (eds.) Special issue on computing education in K-12 schools. Trans. Comput. Educ. 14(2) (2014). https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2642651

  17. Resnick, M., et al.: Scratch: programming for all. Commun. ACM 52, 60–67 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Schulte, C.: Reflections on the role of programming in primary and secondary computing education. In: Proceedings of the 8th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WiPSE 2013, pp. 17–24. ACM, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Seehorn, D. (ed.) K-12 Computer Science Standards - Revised 2011: The CSTA Standards Task Force. ACM (2011). http://csta.acm.org/Curriculum/sub/K12Standards.html

  20. Shulman, L.S.: Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educ. Res. 15(2), 4–14 (1986)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. The Committee on European Computing Education (CECE): Informatics education in Europe: are we all in the same boat? (2017). http://www.informatics-europe.org/component/phocadownload/category/10-reports.html?download=60:cece-report

  22. The Royal Society: Shut down or restart? The way forward for computing in UK schools. The Royal Society, London (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  23. The Royal Society: After the reboot: computing education in UK schools. The Royal Society, London (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Vee, A.: Understanding computer programming as a literacy. Lit. Compos. Stud. 1(2), 42–64 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Wing, J.M.: Computational thinking: what and why? The Link Magazine (2011)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mattia Monga .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Forlizzi, L. et al. (2018). A Core Informatics Curriculum for Italian Compulsory Education. In: Pozdniakov, S., Dagienė, V. (eds) Informatics in Schools. Fundamentals of Computer Science and Software Engineering. ISSEP 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11169. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02749-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02750-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics