The Darmstadt Model: A First Step towards a Research Framework for Computer Science Education in Schools

Abstract

Due to the substantial differences of preconditions, circumstances and influence factors, it is often very difficult to compare or transfer research results in the field of Computer Science Education (CSE) in schools from one country to another. For this purpose we have started the development of a specific framework that, at the end, should reflect all factors that might be relevant for CSE. We collected five extensive case studies from five different countries and performed a qualitative text analysis on those, which was guided by the categories of the well-known Berlin Model as an initial theory. During the coding process we had to realize that this theory was not sufficient in many respects. At first, we noted that we had to deal with three different dimensions. Additionally, we found that we would need more categories, up to 70 at the end. The result of our coding process represents a first step towards the desired framework, that of course, has to be improved still a lot. This will be done by coding further case studies, extending, defining and explicating the categories.