A Recommended ICT Curriculum for K-12 Education

Abstract

The K-12 ICT (Information and Communication Technology) curriculum in Taiwan faced many changes in last two decades. In 1990s, Computers is a required subject in junior high schools and an elective subject in senior high schools, along with many elementary schools offered computer classes. In 2000s, when ICT was popular in schools and families, Taiwan MOE (Ministry of Education) decided that ICT should be integrated into all subjects and Computers was excluded from the required learning areas in K-9 education. On the other hand, computing science was considered important in senior high schools and Introduction to ICT became a compulsory subject in 2006. As Taiwan will implement a twelve-year public education program, the MOE is undergoing revising the existed K-12 curriculum. This paper reports our recommendation on a new ICT curriculum to be implemented in K-12 schools. The recommended ICT curriculum is based on Delphi research methodology. The merit of Delphi technique is to form consensus among experts through several rounds of questionnaire survey. By reviewing the ICT curriculum from many developed countries and organizations, we drafted a preliminary ICT curriculum, including its strands, objectives, and framework. The study is still undergoing. The paper reports the preliminary results of the first stage of our Delphi survey.