Computational thinking (CT) is gaining attention in education as a part of digital literacy and c... more Computational thinking (CT) is gaining attention in education as a part of digital literacy and can be addressed in several disciplines, including mathematics. Through the lens of Brennan and Resnick’s framework, we investigated how computational concepts, practices, and perspectives can be addressed in upper-secondary statistics lessons using spreadsheets through design-based research. Three classes of, in total, 58 16- to 17-year-old 11th-grade students explored several authentic real-life data sets in three 2-h sessions using spreadsheets. We evaluated the intervention by analyzing students’ workbooks, spreadsheet files, interviews, and questionnaires. The findings indicate that (1) students successfully engaged in computational concepts through using formulas, parameters, and conditional statements, (2) fruitfully applied data practices, and (3) demonstrated awareness of the relevance of CT for their everyday and future lives. These results highlight the potential of the use of ...
Because of its hands-on and integrative approach to STEM, educational robotics has become increas... more Because of its hands-on and integrative approach to STEM, educational robotics has become increasingly popular in recent years. Yet, a gender gap still exists in attitudes towards STEM studies and careers, especially among middle and high school students, potentially resulting in a lack of women in the STEM workforce. This study explores the effect of a robotics curriculum on Dutch 7th- and 8th-grade students’ attitude towards STEM subjects and careers, as assessed by the S-STEM survey. The results revealed no difference between the pre-test and post-test in attitudes toward STEM for both boys and girls. However, boys scored significantly higher than girls on attitude towards technology, engineering and future STEM studies on the post-test. A post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference between boys and girls on their attitude towards engineering and technology during the pre-test. These results demonstrate the difference between boys and girls in their attitudes towards STEM...
Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assess... more Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assessment of this skill is a matter of contention. This pilot study examines whether computational and logical thinking are related. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a robotics course concerning logical thinking and computational thinking on 14-year-old Dutch students. Thirty-five students were pre-tested to assess their logical thinking and post-tested for their logical thinking and their computational thinking. The intervention group (N = 11) followed a robotics course between the pre- and post-test. This study's results show a significant positive correlation between computational and logical thinking. This study, with small sample size, does not show the effect of the robotics course on either logical or computational thinking.
Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, work... more Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, workload for teachers is high, and teachers sometimes lack the knowledge to implement robotics education. A key factor of robotics education is peer learning, and having students (near-)peers teach them robotics could diminish workload. Therefore, this study implemented near-peer teaching in robotics education. 4 K10-11 secondary school students were teachers to 83 K5-6 primary school students. The intervention included 4 3-hour robotics lessons in Dutch schools. Primary school students completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire on their STEM-attitudes and near-peer teaching experience, and a report on their learning outcomes. Interaction with near-peer teachers was observed. After the lessons, a paired-samples t-test showed that students had a more positive attitude towards engineering and technology. Students also reported a positive near-peer teaching experience. Conventional co...
Dit artikel beschrijft het project Open Online Betadidactiek waarin opleiders van enkele Nederlan... more Dit artikel beschrijft het project Open Online Betadidactiek waarin opleiders van enkele Nederlandse eerste- en tweedegraads lerarenopleidingen voor de exacte vakken gezamenlijk online lesmateriaal over vakdidactiek hebben gemaakt. Dit vrij beschikbare materiaal kan ingezet worden om blended learning binnen vakdidactiekcursussen vorm te geven, hetgeen een ontwikkeling is waar veel lerarenopleidingen momenteel mee te maken hebben. Individuele opleidingen zijn vaak te klein om zelfstandig dergelijk materiaal te produceren en bovendien biedt samenwerking mogelijkheden tot professionalisering van de lerarenopleiders zelf. Dit artikel gaat in op twee aspecten. Het eerste betreft de organisatiewijze; tijdens het project is een procesmodel ontwikkeld dat gekarakteriseerd wordt door een aantal momenten van intensieve samenwerking in kleine instellingsoverstijgende teams. Het tweede betreft kenmerken van online materialen voor vakdidactiek en gebruikservaringen. Een belangrijke bevinding is ...
ABSTRACT By decreasing the amount of contact time during the past fifteen years in mathematics ed... more ABSTRACT By decreasing the amount of contact time during the past fifteen years in mathematics education in senior secondary education in the Netherlands the issue of organizing this contact time more efficiently has become increasingly relevant. Research shows that feedback is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing learning achievements. At the same time educational technology emerged in the field. Especially mobile technology seems to be promising. The main research question to be answered in this chapter is: "What are the possibilities of a wireless classroom network to support upper secondary statistics teachers in giving feedback?" An intervention was designed and evaluated that tries to utilize a classroom network of graphing calculators for the sake of feedback. The intervention was (re)designed and evaluated in four empirical educational design research cycles. The study was carried out in the domain of descriptive statistics. The study explicates the conditions to be fulfilled for the intervention to be successful.
On the 22nd and 23rd November 2016, experts of European STEM curriculum gathered to discuss the q... more On the 22nd and 23rd November 2016, experts of European STEM curriculum gathered to discuss the question ‘What is the position of mathematics education and of informatics education in a coherent STEM curriculum?’ Nine different national perspectives were sketched in papers. These papers were used as input for international discussion groups, which each developed a poster, summarizing their findings. As a way of recapitulating all of the input and the discussions, all of the participating experts completed a survey that summarized the main findings in two propositions, to be agreed or disagreed with. This chapter presents these results and draws curriculum-related conclusions upon them regarding students’ STEM skills.
The design and use of online materials for blended learning have been in the spotlight of educati... more The design and use of online materials for blended learning have been in the spotlight of educational development over the last decade. With respect to didactical courses, however, the potential of online and blended learning seems to be underexplored; little is known about its affordances for teacher education, and for domain specific didactical courses in particular. To investigate this potential, as well as the ways to organize the co-design of such learning units, we carried out a small and short-term research project in which teacher educators in the Netherlands engaged in a co-design process of developing and field-testing open online learning units for mathematics and science didactics. We focused on the features of the designed online learning units, on the organization of the co-design process, and on the experiences with the learning units in teacher education practice. A first conclusion was that it was most fruitful to design building blocks rather than ready-to-use cour...
In 1998, informatics was introduced as an elective subject for all students in the upper grades o... more In 1998, informatics was introduced as an elective subject for all students in the upper grades of senior general secondary education and pre-university education in the Netherlands. Rather than focusing on digital literacy or the use of office applications, it focuses on informatics as a scientific discipline. In its first decade, it faced growing pains while fighting for recognition and necessary facilities from the stakeholders: students, parents, school administrators, politicians and the general public. In 2007, the curriculum was slightly streamlined but not updated. In its second decade, informatics reached adulthood with established teacher training programs and a new curriculum which is to be introduced in 2019. In this paper we describe the events and processes that led to the renewal of the curriculum, the curriculum itself with the principles it is based on and its aims, the current process of teaching material development, the related research, the teacher training, cur...
Computational thinking (CT) is gaining attention in education as a part of digital literacy and c... more Computational thinking (CT) is gaining attention in education as a part of digital literacy and can be addressed in several disciplines, including mathematics. Through the lens of Brennan and Resnick’s framework, we investigated how computational concepts, practices, and perspectives can be addressed in upper-secondary statistics lessons using spreadsheets through design-based research. Three classes of, in total, 58 16- to 17-year-old 11th-grade students explored several authentic real-life data sets in three 2-h sessions using spreadsheets. We evaluated the intervention by analyzing students’ workbooks, spreadsheet files, interviews, and questionnaires. The findings indicate that (1) students successfully engaged in computational concepts through using formulas, parameters, and conditional statements, (2) fruitfully applied data practices, and (3) demonstrated awareness of the relevance of CT for their everyday and future lives. These results highlight the potential of the use of ...
Because of its hands-on and integrative approach to STEM, educational robotics has become increas... more Because of its hands-on and integrative approach to STEM, educational robotics has become increasingly popular in recent years. Yet, a gender gap still exists in attitudes towards STEM studies and careers, especially among middle and high school students, potentially resulting in a lack of women in the STEM workforce. This study explores the effect of a robotics curriculum on Dutch 7th- and 8th-grade students’ attitude towards STEM subjects and careers, as assessed by the S-STEM survey. The results revealed no difference between the pre-test and post-test in attitudes toward STEM for both boys and girls. However, boys scored significantly higher than girls on attitude towards technology, engineering and future STEM studies on the post-test. A post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference between boys and girls on their attitude towards engineering and technology during the pre-test. These results demonstrate the difference between boys and girls in their attitudes towards STEM...
Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assess... more Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assessment of this skill is a matter of contention. This pilot study examines whether computational and logical thinking are related. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a robotics course concerning logical thinking and computational thinking on 14-year-old Dutch students. Thirty-five students were pre-tested to assess their logical thinking and post-tested for their logical thinking and their computational thinking. The intervention group (N = 11) followed a robotics course between the pre- and post-test. This study's results show a significant positive correlation between computational and logical thinking. This study, with small sample size, does not show the effect of the robotics course on either logical or computational thinking.
Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, work... more Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, workload for teachers is high, and teachers sometimes lack the knowledge to implement robotics education. A key factor of robotics education is peer learning, and having students (near-)peers teach them robotics could diminish workload. Therefore, this study implemented near-peer teaching in robotics education. 4 K10-11 secondary school students were teachers to 83 K5-6 primary school students. The intervention included 4 3-hour robotics lessons in Dutch schools. Primary school students completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire on their STEM-attitudes and near-peer teaching experience, and a report on their learning outcomes. Interaction with near-peer teachers was observed. After the lessons, a paired-samples t-test showed that students had a more positive attitude towards engineering and technology. Students also reported a positive near-peer teaching experience. Conventional co...
Dit artikel beschrijft het project Open Online Betadidactiek waarin opleiders van enkele Nederlan... more Dit artikel beschrijft het project Open Online Betadidactiek waarin opleiders van enkele Nederlandse eerste- en tweedegraads lerarenopleidingen voor de exacte vakken gezamenlijk online lesmateriaal over vakdidactiek hebben gemaakt. Dit vrij beschikbare materiaal kan ingezet worden om blended learning binnen vakdidactiekcursussen vorm te geven, hetgeen een ontwikkeling is waar veel lerarenopleidingen momenteel mee te maken hebben. Individuele opleidingen zijn vaak te klein om zelfstandig dergelijk materiaal te produceren en bovendien biedt samenwerking mogelijkheden tot professionalisering van de lerarenopleiders zelf. Dit artikel gaat in op twee aspecten. Het eerste betreft de organisatiewijze; tijdens het project is een procesmodel ontwikkeld dat gekarakteriseerd wordt door een aantal momenten van intensieve samenwerking in kleine instellingsoverstijgende teams. Het tweede betreft kenmerken van online materialen voor vakdidactiek en gebruikservaringen. Een belangrijke bevinding is ...
ABSTRACT By decreasing the amount of contact time during the past fifteen years in mathematics ed... more ABSTRACT By decreasing the amount of contact time during the past fifteen years in mathematics education in senior secondary education in the Netherlands the issue of organizing this contact time more efficiently has become increasingly relevant. Research shows that feedback is one of the most powerful tools for enhancing learning achievements. At the same time educational technology emerged in the field. Especially mobile technology seems to be promising. The main research question to be answered in this chapter is: "What are the possibilities of a wireless classroom network to support upper secondary statistics teachers in giving feedback?" An intervention was designed and evaluated that tries to utilize a classroom network of graphing calculators for the sake of feedback. The intervention was (re)designed and evaluated in four empirical educational design research cycles. The study was carried out in the domain of descriptive statistics. The study explicates the conditions to be fulfilled for the intervention to be successful.
On the 22nd and 23rd November 2016, experts of European STEM curriculum gathered to discuss the q... more On the 22nd and 23rd November 2016, experts of European STEM curriculum gathered to discuss the question ‘What is the position of mathematics education and of informatics education in a coherent STEM curriculum?’ Nine different national perspectives were sketched in papers. These papers were used as input for international discussion groups, which each developed a poster, summarizing their findings. As a way of recapitulating all of the input and the discussions, all of the participating experts completed a survey that summarized the main findings in two propositions, to be agreed or disagreed with. This chapter presents these results and draws curriculum-related conclusions upon them regarding students’ STEM skills.
The design and use of online materials for blended learning have been in the spotlight of educati... more The design and use of online materials for blended learning have been in the spotlight of educational development over the last decade. With respect to didactical courses, however, the potential of online and blended learning seems to be underexplored; little is known about its affordances for teacher education, and for domain specific didactical courses in particular. To investigate this potential, as well as the ways to organize the co-design of such learning units, we carried out a small and short-term research project in which teacher educators in the Netherlands engaged in a co-design process of developing and field-testing open online learning units for mathematics and science didactics. We focused on the features of the designed online learning units, on the organization of the co-design process, and on the experiences with the learning units in teacher education practice. A first conclusion was that it was most fruitful to design building blocks rather than ready-to-use cour...
In 1998, informatics was introduced as an elective subject for all students in the upper grades o... more In 1998, informatics was introduced as an elective subject for all students in the upper grades of senior general secondary education and pre-university education in the Netherlands. Rather than focusing on digital literacy or the use of office applications, it focuses on informatics as a scientific discipline. In its first decade, it faced growing pains while fighting for recognition and necessary facilities from the stakeholders: students, parents, school administrators, politicians and the general public. In 2007, the curriculum was slightly streamlined but not updated. In its second decade, informatics reached adulthood with established teacher training programs and a new curriculum which is to be introduced in 2019. In this paper we describe the events and processes that led to the renewal of the curriculum, the curriculum itself with the principles it is based on and its aims, the current process of teaching material development, the related research, the teacher training, cur...
CIDREE is a network of educational organisations involved in curriculum development and/or educat... more CIDREE is a network of educational organisations involved in curriculum development and/or educational research, set up in 1990 to establish closer working relationships at a European level. In November 2016, representatives of member countries gathered in order to address the research question 'What is the position of mathematics and informatics education in a coherent STEM curriculum?'. In this book, the national perspectives are presented.
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