The announcement that computer science would be a Leaving Certificate subject from 2018 sparked interest among students and teachers alike when it was first announced. Now, with the draft syllabus due to be published soon, the future of coding, computing and the teaching of new technologies will have a strong Trinity influence.
The digital strategy for schools, launched this week by the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, had two headline promises. The first, the introduction of computer science as a Leaving Certificate option from 2018 onwards and the second, adding coding to the primary school curriculum.
If successful, it could change the way Irish schools approach computers – moving away from the old idea of IT literacy to a more proactive understanding of how, where and why computing has changed the way our world works.
Bruton, speaking this week, said he wanted to ensure “Ireland is well placed to take advantage of the digital revolution”. For a country that has for years prided itself for being home to the companies shaping this revolution, the lack of any formal coding or programming teaching in our school system was conspicuous by its absence.
It’s a little bit like the Wizard of Oz – a lot see the wizard but not necessarily behind the curtain
Since early 2017, a group has advised the Department of Education and Skills on the next steps to actually implement a strategy that is ambitious in the range and scope of its ideas. There is much more to the strategy than simply a new Leaving Certificate subject, says Prof Brendan Tangney, of Trinity’s School of Computer Science and Statistics, speaking to The University Times. Chair of the group advising the strategy’s implementation, Tangney has significant experience in computer science education as the founder Trinity’s Bridge 21 scheme, which runs workshops and activities for secondary school children and their teachers.
The aim of the strategy is to integrate digital technology fully into the education system, making it just as normal to be learning code as it would be to learn Pythagoras’s theorem. From support for teachers to a €210 million investment programme to upgrade IT technology in schools, the strategy has a long list of plans, actions and ambitions that, if successfully implemented, will see a dramatic change in how children learn about technology.
“The strategy document is educationally very sound. It’s teaching and learning led, with technology following, rather than, which is often the case, technology-led with teaching and learning playing second fiddle”, Tangney said.
Tangney helped oversee the introduction of two new initiatives earlier than was planned. One of these initiatives, based on a previous strategy that was developed in the late 1990s, will see funding set aside for clusters of schools that can club together to work on a larger projects.
It’s taken years for the government to develop a wider curriculum and strategy for schools, despite Ireland’s reputation for as a hub for technology companies. “I think in some ways it’s probably to do with people not having an understanding of what’s involved in computer science”, Dr Jake Byrne, who was commissioned by the National Council for Curriculm and Assessment (NCCA) to develop the new syllabus and also works in Bridge 21 with Tangney, told The University Times. Byrne, who also works in the School of Education in Trinity, said: “It’s a little bit like the Wizard of Oz – a lot see the wizard but not necessarily behind the curtain.”
Another of these initiatives – a competency framework, which will allow teachers to benchmark and assess their own IT skills – is going to be important, Tangney said. He is unequivocal on the most challenging part of the strategy: “Teacher professional development.” Work must be done with educating teachers before and after they become qualified to ensure the success of the strategy.
This is something the Leaving Certificate syllabus will try to address. “They shouldn’t necessarily need to be absolute master coders. But they should have a willingness to try out new technologies and to have a go at it”, Byrne said.
They shouldn’t necessarily need to be absolute master coders. But they should have a willingness to try out new technologies and to have a go at it
The strategy outlines ways to support teachers, training them and gently pushing them to learn new skills and widen their own understanding of new technologies.
The syllabus assumes, Byrne said, no prior knowledge, making it somewhat different from similar courses in the UK or the US, where coding and computer science is taught from a younger age. This doesn’t mean that some students, however, won’t have some computing skills. “We’re having more students who’ve been doing Coderdojos since they were like six or seven, so it may be the case as well that the students are maybe, in some areas, more knowledgeable than the teacher, so it’s how do you lever that knowledge as well within the class”, Byrne said.
Byrne envisages that, at some point in the near future, there will be some teacher qualification in relation to coding and computer science. Partly this will be necessary because he is highly sceptical that computer science graduates will join the teaching profession. “I don’t think we’re going to get computer science graduates teaching. Although it would be awesome and ideal, in terms of pay and salary I can’t imagine many computer science graduates opting for teaching over some industry jobs that are out there.”
Predicting the future is difficult. Every year, there are new innovations, new technologies, or new programming languages
The draft specification is made up of three strands, each focusing on a different area of computer science. The first strand is “softer”, according to Byrne, addressing computational thinking and the role of computers in society. The second and third strands are made up of five projects, the guidelines for which are flexible and open ended, giving students some freedom to pitch their project at their own skill level, focusing on everything from computational modelling to analytics and designing a website.
“We want this to be a rich experience for everybody. It has coding, it has programming and it’s all about technology”, Byrne said. But predicting the future is difficult. Every year, there are new innovations, new technologies, or new programming languages.
The lack of a specified programming language and the “broad” language are all designed to address this challenge. Indeed, the draft specification makes a number of suggestions as to the programming language that might be used. From Scratch as a starting point to something more advanced like JavaScript, teachers and students will have significant freedom to shape the course to their own strengths.
Dr Mike Brady, the Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning in Trinity’s School of Computer Science and Statistics, gave cautious praise to the new strategy and, specifically, the introduction of computer science for the Leaving Certificate. Speaking to The University Times, he said: “The devil is in the detail. Is it going to be resourced properly and is it going to displace other subjects that maybe people would be just as well or even better off learning?”.
Brady questioned how a secondary level qualification in computer science would be treated by universities. “I would really dislike a situation where we were turning away really good students who didn’t do computer science. Someone with very good maths or physics or numeracy in general who, for one reason or another, perhaps because it wasn’t available, didn’t choose computer science.”
