Competence Analysis in the Two-subject Study Program

Computer Science

Jože Rugelj, Irena Nančovska Šerbec

Faculty of Education

Univesity of Ljubljana

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Purpose

academia

teachers

employers

Empirical research on achieved and desired competences

of computer science teachers

Web survey•Determine the current level of competence achievement and

estimate the differences between the desired and the achieved level.

•Consider the results of analysis in the design of new curricula in the framework of the Bologna processes.

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Introduction - competences

… generally comprehend expert and didactic knowledge and skills from the subject field and pedagogical and psychological knowledge for teaching.

… defined as dynamic combination of knowledge, understanding, skills and abilities.

Set of 19 competences:

• Generic – according to Tuning

• Subject specific - according to Computing Curricula

•the ACM document’s authors are representatives of well-known computer science organizations, (IEEE Computer Society and Association of Computing Machinery - ACM)

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Introduction - list of competences

1. Understanding and application of general and didactical knowledge in the field of teaching.

2. Interdisciplinary knowledge linking.

3. Application of special pedagogical knowledge to teaching pupils with special needs.

4. Pedagogical classroom/group guidance.

5. Organising active and independent learning, qualifying learners for effective learning.

6. Qualification for the assessment of learners’ achievements and for preparing feedback information.

7. Communicating with experts from educational fields and ability to establish and maintain partnership relations among them.

8. Collaboration with parents.

9. Formation of integral assessment of individual or group needs, about their strong and weak fields.

10. Knowledge and understanding of essential facts, concepts and theories from computer science.

11. Identification and analyzes of the problems and planning strategies for their solving.

12. Selection and application of adequate theory and tool for specification, planning and realization of the system.

13. Considering the principles of human-computer interaction in the system planning and evaluation.

14. Critical analyses and evaluation of the systems’ or their parts in accordance with the specifications.

15. Knowledge and application of social, professional and ethical aspects related to computer technology.

16. Knowledge and understanding of didactic particularity of computer science and informatics.

17. Theoretical and practical knowledge for effective integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into the field of education.

18. Ability for information management.

19. Usage of professional terminology and appropriate language through professional and pedagogical work.

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Introduction - competences

Professional part : comprehends the pedagogical,

psychological, philosophical and other knowledge needed for work in the classroom, and incorporates the

creative use of time for realization of the subject-specific goals

Development part enables evolution of teaching and professional abilities of the

teacher, leads the realization of the teaching process, enables the creative use of new

findings related to the profession and allows recognition of the personal needs of the

pupils

Parts: (1)personal; (2)development; (3)professional; (4)social;(5)action.

Personal: related to determination, self-

confidence, intelligence, initiative, responsibility,

sincerity, confidence, communicativeness and

other values of the teacher

Social part of the competences is related to the techniques of communication, interaction, involves knowledge about

problems solving, motivation and organizing team work

Action part is related to the practical activities of the teacher in and out of the

school

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Methods

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

1 2 6 9 17 8 16 13 3 4 5 11 12 16 19 7 14 15 18

Sorted estimates

graphs

Confidence intervals

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sorted differences

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

0

0,51

1,52

2,53

3,54

4,5

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5

achieved

desir

ed

Scatterplot

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Methods-sample of respondents There were 96 participants involved in the web

survey. The number of participants was relatively small

almost all the graduates on the computer science program almost all the teaching staff, professors and teaching

assistants who teach in the computer science program.

The respondents can be divided into two main groups:77 graduates of the study program Mathematics and

computer science on the Faculty of education and headmasters, “teachers”,

19 professors and teaching assistants, »academicians«.

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Results - confidence intervals P>.95

00,5

11,5

22,5

33,5

4

1)

Un

der

stan

din

g a

nd

ap

pli

cati

on

of

gen

eral

an

d d

idac

tica

l

kn

ow

led

ge

in t

he

fiel

d o

f te

ach

ing

.

2)

Inte

rdis

cip

lin

ary

kn

ow

led

ge

lin

kin

g.

3)

Ap

pli

cati

on

of

spec

ial

ped

ago

gic

al k

no

wle

dg

e to

tea

chin

g

pu

pil

s w

ith

sp

ecia

l n

eed

s.

4)

Ped

ago

gic

al c

lass

roo

m/g

rou

p g

uid

ance

.

5)

Org

anis

ing

act

ive

and

in

dep

end

ent

lear

nin

g, q

ual

ify

ing

lear

ner

s fo

r ef

fect

ive

lear

nin

g.

6)

Qu

alif

icat

ion

fo

r th

e as

sess

men

t o

f le

arn

ers’

ach

iev

emen

ts

and

fo

r p

rep

arin

g f

eed

bac

k i

nfo

rmat

ion

.

7)

Co

mm

un

icat

ing

wit

h e

xp

erts

fro

m e

du

cati

on

al f

ield

s an

d

abil

ity

to

est

abli

sh a

nd

mai

nta

in p

artn

ersh

ip r

elat

ion

s am

on

g

8)

Co

llab

ora

tio

n w

ith

par

ents

.

9)

Fo

rmat

ion

of

inte

gra

l as

sess

men

t o

f in

div

idu

al o

r g

rou

p

nee

ds,

ab

ou

t th

eir

stro

ng

an

d w

eak

fie

lds.

10

) K

no

wle

dg

e an

d u

nd

erst

and

ing

of

esse

nti

al f

acts

, co

nce

pts

and

th

eori

es f

rom

co

mp

ute

r sc

ien

ce.

11

) Id

enti

fica

tio

n a

nd

an

aly

zes

of

the

pro

ble

ms

and

pla

nn

ing

stra

teg

ies

for

thei

r so

lvin

g.

12

) S

elec

tio

n a

nd

ap

pli

cati

on

of

adeq

uat

e th

eory

an

d t

oo

l fo

r

spec

ific

atio

n, p

lan

nin

g a

nd

rea

liza

tio

n o

f th

e sy

stem

.

13

) C

on

sid

erin

g t

he

pri

nci

ple

s o

f h

um

an-c

om

pu

ter

inte

ract

ion

in t

he

syst

em p

lan

nin

g a

nd

ev

alu

atio

n.

14

) C

riti

cal

anal

yse

s an

d e

val

uat

ion

of

the

syst

ems’

or

thei

r

par

ts i

n a

cco

rdan

ce w

ith

th

e sp

ecif

icat

ion

s.

15

) K

no

wle

dg

e an

d a

pp

lica

tio

n o

f so

cial

, pro

fess

ion

al a

nd

eth

ical

asp

ects

rel

ated

to

co

mp

ute

r te

chn

olo

gy

.

16

) K

no

wle

dg

e an

d u

nd

erst

and

ing

of

did

acti

c p

arti

cula

rity

of

com

pu

ter

scie

nce

an

d i

nfo

rmat

ics.

17

) T

heo

reti

cal

and

pra

ctic

al k

no

wle

dg

e fo

r ef

fect

ive

inte

gra

tio

n o

f in

form

atio

n a

nd

co

mm

un

icat

ion

tec

hn

olo

gy

18

) A

bil

ity

fo

r in

form

atio

n m

anag

emen

t.

19

) U

sag

e o

f p

rofe

ssio

nal

ter

min

olo

gy

an

d a

pp

rop

riat

e

lan

gu

age

thro

ug

h p

rofe

ssio

nal

an

d p

edag

og

ical

wo

rk.

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Results- sorted graphs “achieved”Estimations of achieved competences - "teachers"

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

1 2 6 9 17 8 16 13 3 4 5 11 12 16 19 7 14 15 18

Estimations of achieved competences - "academicians"

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

16 18 11 13 19 1 5 6 2 4 12 17 9 7 8 15 16 14 3

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Results- sorted graphs “desired”Estimations of desired competences - "academicians"

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

165

171 4 6

16 182

197

11 123

158

13 149

Estimations of desired competences -- "teachers"

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

216 17

616 18

1 4 5 8 912

711 13 14 19

315

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Results- differences

Difference between desired and achieved competences - "teachers"

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8

18)10)16)4)5)7)

12)14)17)6)8)

11)19)2)

13)9)

13)15)1)

Difference between desired and achieved comptences - "academicians"

0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 1,4 1,6 1,8

3)16)17)4)5)7)

14)1)2)6)

15)8)

12)19)10)9)

11)18)13)

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Results - scatterplot - all

Competence achieved desired difference

16) Knowledge and understanding of didactic particularity of computer science and informatics. 2,08 3,61 1,54

3) Application of special pedagogical knowledge to teaching pupils with special needs. 1,62 3,08 1,46

17) Theoretical and practical knowledge for effective integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into the field of education. 2,46 3,77 1,31

4) Pedagogical classroom/ group guidance. 2,46 3,61 1,15

5) Organizing active and independent learning, qualifying learners for effective learning. 2,38 3,54 1,15

7) Communicating with experts from educational fields and ability to establish and maintain partnership relations among them. 2,08 3,23 1,15

14) Critical analyses and evaluation of the systems’ or their parts in accordance with the specifications. 1,85 3 1,15

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3

achieved

desir

ed

3) 14)

16)

7)

4) 17)

5)

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Discussion

For all respondents the following competences are

important: »knowledge and understanding of didactic particularity of computer science and

informatics« and »theoretical and practical knowledge for effective

integration of ICT into the field of education«.

Partnership between faculty and partners in

practice - teachers and headmasters -

played an important role in the competence

analysis.

“Teachers” think general teaching competences are

achieved better in comparison with specific

competences, but “academicians” think that specific computer science competences are achieved

good enough.

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Discussion

There was not enough emphasis on the didactic topics for teaching of computer science in the current study program.

Students were not adequately taught about the particularity of teaching pupils with special needs.

They did not obtain enough applicative knowledge for integration of ICT in education.

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The results of the analysis for other teacher education programs are similar with the results Computer science teachers program.

• The results of competence analysis were a base for the design of new Bologna curriculum.

• “Critical” competences were appropriately “covered” and developed through different courses in the renewed computer science program.

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CS teacher education study program CS core curricula

Systems 1 (AR 36)Systems II (OS 18, NC 15)Programming (PF 35)Algorithms (AL 31)Progr. technologies (PL 21, SE 16)Data management (GV 3, IM 11, IS 10)

Didactic coursesUse of ICT in education (HC 8, SP 16, SE 15) 8 ECTS

Didactics of CS 8 ECTS

Elective course Prerequisites (DS 43, PF 12)Beaver 2011 16