Introducing computer science to educationally disadvantaged high school students

Abstract

An approach to the teaching and learning of high school computer science (CS) to and by educationally disadvantaged students (EDS) is described, as well as the implementation of six pedagogical principles in two learning environments developed for Israeli schools. Following a brief description of the main characteristics of EDS classes and a review of the proposed guiding principles for the curricular development for such classes, implementation of two of these principles is discussed. First, the implementation of ‘decomposition’ is presented with regard to the TEVEL (Hebrew version of the Logo programming language) version of the CS module for EDS. Then, the implementation of ‘a pattern‐oriented curriculum’ is presented with regard to the Pascal version of the CS module for EDS. Our data show that in both versions, students taking the national final exam achieved above‐average grades. We also found that at the end of the module, the students master basic programming tools and recognize basic algorithmic patterns. These findings indicate the potential contribution of our approach for EDS in particular, but also for CS students in general.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the leaders of Migvan, Professor Uri Leron and Tami Lapidot, for the years of cooperation, advice and support. We would also like to acknowledge the valuable contributions they made as readers of earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. Migvan – Research and Development in CS Education works at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. ‘Migvan’ is the Hebrew term for ‘variety’.

2. ‘Tevel’ is the Hebrew word for ‘universe’.

3. An LCSI product, See http://www.microworlds.com