Educational Objectives in Computing Education: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This study examined three elementary school computing curriculum - the CSTA K-12 computer science standards, the computing programme of the national curriculum in England, and the 2015 national curriculum in Korea - focusing on the educational objectives with the perspective of the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The CSTA K-12 computer science standards mainly addressed applying procedural knowledge and using digital technology is the main theme. The computing programme in England concentrated on understanding factual and conceptual knowledge of computer science, such as algorithms. The 2015 national curriculum also addressed applying procedural knowledge, but the main focus is making softwares and robots. The findings of this comparative analysis suggest that it is needed to set up concrete educational objectives for lower grade and make them related to the secondary education to make more coherent elementary-level learning objectives. And elementary-level computing learning objectives are needed to be organized with the perspective of knowledge and cognitive process level.