Abstract:

Digitalization is being implemented in Slovenia through national documents and development projects, including in the field of education where a curriculum renewal is currently underway. Recognizing that digitalization is contingent on an individual's level of digital competence and their knowledge in computing and informatics (hereafter referred to as C&I), the Ministry of Education established a professional working group in 2018 to incorporate fundamental C&I content into primary education – RINOS. Through annual reports, this group developed a C&I framework encompassing five areas: computer systems, data and analysis, algorithms and programming, networks and the internet, and the effects of computing and informatics. Despite the group's proposal to revise the curriculum and introduce C&I through a mandatory subject, the Ministry opted for a cross-curricular development of C&I knowledge. The current primary education curriculum already includes the development of C&I knowledge within the compulsory subjects from grades 1 to 9. However, due to varying levels of school informatization and teachers digital skills, the implementation of this knowledge differs from school to school. Differences in C&I knowledge are thus strongly influenced by the school's level of informatization, staffing conditions, teacher autonomy and skills, student motivation, family and social environmental factors, extracurricular activities, financial resources, and support. The elective nature of the C&I subject available to students aged 9 to 14 further exacerbates these disparities in digital competence within generations. Currently, C&I knowledge is too fragmented and dependent on individual schools and teachers, leading to inequalities in the knowledge acquired by students. The success of the cross-curricular development of C&I knowledge will only be possible through the further education of teachers, who will develop C&I knowledge through other compulsory subjects. This would lead to more uniform teaching and learning of these contents and the establishment of an appropriate learning community at the national level, involving teachers from various subject areas, C&I teachers, open materials, and new technologies. For this purpose, 10 consortium partners, led by the Faculty of Education in Koper, University of Primorska, are involved in a three-year development project B-RIN, co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Education, and the European Union – NextGenerationEU. Project activities are focused on designing thoughtful, vertically structured learning scenarios that offer a blend of achieving the goals of individual subject areas with the five C&I areas. In this paper, we will present the results of the development project to date and the design of learning scenarios, which at the implementation level with students aged 8 and 9, considering modern didactic approaches (personalized learning, learning through movement, formative assessment), enabled the intertwining of C&I goals and the goals of compulsory subjects by involving local businesses and industries developing their business ideas in the C&I field. The presented learning scenarios will demonstrate how targeted methods and an interdisciplinary approach, using a thoughtfully planned and designed vertical development path of computing and informatics knowledge, can effectively achieve the set cross-curricular goals in individual subjects in primary school.

Keywords:

Computing and Informatics, Cross-Curricular Learning, Teacher Digital Competence.