Abstract:

In the spring of 2018 Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket) commissioned a number of higher education institutions in Sweden to develop external courses in programming/coding for secondary school teachers in mathematics and technical science subjects [1]. This was in response to the national government's digitalization strategy which specified amendments to existing curricula to include programming/coding in theses subject areas. This article presents the findings of a descriptive content analysis of 20+ syllabi from 14 different higher education institutions which have implemented courses in programming/coding for secondary school teachers. The syllabi were examined for a number of areas including choice of programming language, choice of programming language concepts, handling of programming didactics and its application to the use of coding in the seceondary school classroom, choice of teaching strategies and learning objectives. Some supplemental documents such as literature lists and course descriptions were also examined. The findings show a general coherence with the stated curricula objectives though course content and strategies vary.

References:
[1] Government of Sweden (Executive Cabinet), Memorandum, 2017-03-09, https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/acd9a3987a8e4619bd6ed95c26ada236/informationsmaterial-starkt-digital-kompetens-i-skolans-styrdokument.pdf

Keywords:

Syllabi, Programming, Coding, Secondary School Teachers.