We’re seeing an increasingly apparent borderline obsession with getting primary school age kids to learn to ‘code’, i.e. computer programming. Bill Shorten promoted it in his Budget Reply speech this year and various commentators have formed a chorus.
The focus on coding does have sensible origins. The 2009 Melbourne Declaration made the fairly common-sense observation that school students should be prepared for “a world in which information technology will be ubiquitous.”
It seems schools aren’t doing a very good job. The National Assessment Program includes an ICT component, and the 2014 report for Years 6 and 10 released this week shows test performance – in terms of mean scores and the percentage of students reaching basic standards – is poor and has declined since 2011. Only 55% of Year 6 students were deemed proficient, and just 52% of Year 10 students. Results were also differentiated by socio-economic status, with kids from professional urban households performing better than their rural and underprivileged peers.
It should not be surprising that ‘digital natives’ may not be so skilled after all. The technology people use on a daily basis is becoming less technical and more focused on ‘idiot proof’ apps.
Is it any wonder, then, that even children who are accustomed to using technology are often failing to grasp how to use it to complete concrete tasks? The idea that schools can ‘teach’ computing skills, the skills necessary for ‘creative and productive’ use of technology (as the Melbourne Declaration proposes) just by replacing the whiteboard with a smartboard, and exercise books with computers, is folly.
If the obsession with coding is shorthand for more explicit and purposeful teaching of ICT, as ACARA CEO Rob Randall has said there should be, then there’s something to it. But trying to cram the teaching of a highly specific skill (likely by poorly-trained instructors, given there is already a shortage of maths and science teachers) into an already-crowded curriculum can only make things worse – especially when so many kids are still not functionally literate or numerate. Those are skills that even the most brilliant of software engineers cannot do without.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > Decoding fact and fiction in coding
Decoding fact and fiction in coding
The focus on coding does have sensible origins. The 2009 Melbourne Declaration made the fairly common-sense observation that school students should be prepared for “a world in which information technology will be ubiquitous.”
It seems schools aren’t doing a very good job. The National Assessment Program includes an ICT component, and the 2014 report for Years 6 and 10 released this week shows test performance – in terms of mean scores and the percentage of students reaching basic standards – is poor and has declined since 2011. Only 55% of Year 6 students were deemed proficient, and just 52% of Year 10 students. Results were also differentiated by socio-economic status, with kids from professional urban households performing better than their rural and underprivileged peers.
It should not be surprising that ‘digital natives’ may not be so skilled after all. The technology people use on a daily basis is becoming less technical and more focused on ‘idiot proof’ apps.
Is it any wonder, then, that even children who are accustomed to using technology are often failing to grasp how to use it to complete concrete tasks? The idea that schools can ‘teach’ computing skills, the skills necessary for ‘creative and productive’ use of technology (as the Melbourne Declaration proposes) just by replacing the whiteboard with a smartboard, and exercise books with computers, is folly.
If the obsession with coding is shorthand for more explicit and purposeful teaching of ICT, as ACARA CEO Rob Randall has said there should be, then there’s something to it. But trying to cram the teaching of a highly specific skill (likely by poorly-trained instructors, given there is already a shortage of maths and science teachers) into an already-crowded curriculum can only make things worse – especially when so many kids are still not functionally literate or numerate. Those are skills that even the most brilliant of software engineers cannot do without.
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