A Computer Science Educational Program for Establishing an Entry Point into the Computing Community of Practice

Abstract

Introduction During the last two decades, program in computer science (CS) (Gal-Ezer, Beeri, Harel, & Yehudai, 1995) and program in software engineering (SE) (The Ministry of Education, 2004) especially designed for the high-school level have been in operation in Israel. The aim of the computer science program is to expose the students to fundamental scientific domain whose principles are characteristic of algorithmic thinking. The software engineering program consists of the following components: (a) an elective topic in natural sciences, (b) computer science, and (c) an elective advanced specialized topic. Its aim is to expose the students to computational thinking (Wing, 2006) as well as to system-level perception (Gal-Ezer & Zeldes, 2000). Both programs have evolved over the years in accordance with changes in the discipline of computing; however, gap still exists between the school programs and the real of computing related to: content, learning culture, and the professional norms governing software development processes. We believe that in order to motivate students to seek expertise in the field, it is important to expose them to up-to-date computing research and development (RD however, they rarely resemble the state-of-the-art computing research and development as well as the new, evolving directions in the field. Regarding bridging the gap between learning in school and real-world situations, Ben-Ari concluded that, most likely, decontextualized schooling will continue to be fundamental method of computer science education (Ben-Ari, 2004), since, in particular, in this high-technology world, a newcomer must have significant amount of basic and background knowledge before entering into meaningful participation in technological communities of practice (Ben-Ari, 2003). Based on these considerations, we believe that students should learn fundamentals along with getting acquainted with enrichment advanced topics. The traditional style of teaching/learning in school is usually designed so that students can acquire explicit knowledge based on thorough understanding of the topic learned. However, this approach alone might fail to educate the students to become self-learners who are capable of navigating in the rapidly growing world of knowledge (Computing Research Association, 2005; Long & Ehrmann, 2005; Passig, 2001). Hence, we suggest that students be taught to employ breadth-oriented, tasting-based learning style. The Software Engineering 2004 Curriculum states that incorporating real-world elements into the curriculum is necessary to enable effective learning of software engineering skills and concepts (ACM/IEEE Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula [ACM/IEEE], 2004). …