Coding in the Curriculum

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, educators increasingly face the daunting task of instructing schoolchildren, beginning as early as five years old, in the systematic thinking essential to writing code. The goal is to teach schoolchildren how to become not merely passive consumers of computer technology but rather active designers of computer programs and applications. The knowledge base and problem-solving skills developed in learning computer programming are seen as a way to prepare students for future job opportunities but, more importantly, to expand their intellect and their creativity.

Overview

The rigorous field of computer science, which has emerged since 2000 as one of the most attractive postsecondary education programs, is simply not able to produce sufficient numbers of qualified computer programmers to meet the needs of the digital workplace. The related field of information technology, which emphasizes the discipline of setting up and then maintaining network computer systems, does not produce programmers qualified to create the programs necessary to keep pace with the needs of a digital workplace. The projected growth in employment related to information technology, from analysts to developers to designers, ranged from 16 to 35 percent for the period of 2021 through 2031, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (Krutsch, 2022). Because the field of computer science is always evolving—a network's information systems can be rendered obsolete in a single fiscal year—the global business market demands workers competent in not only computer technology but also programming as a way to keep computer systems up to date and be able to address problems as they come up.

In classrooms, computers engaged students with learning; computers assisted with the visual presentation of material; computers were essential to doing research, reports, and homework. The concept that computers could be instructed to solve problems and do original work, however, was not an element of technology in the classroom curricula. Computers in the classrooms were essentially assisting in a process of education that itself remained unchanged.

Beginning in the late 1990s, educators, particularly in Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, began to explore the shortcomings of the education system in terms of producing graduates with competent and useful computer coding skills. Although classrooms routinely used software to engage students, the students themselves had little grasp of what the computer actually did or how to "talk" directly to a computer's hardware using the discipline of binary logic and algorithms. Coding advocates promoted a radical revisioning of the classroom itself that would make education equal to the demands of the contemporary digital workplace. The skills gap would have to be addressed by introducing children at a young age to the complexities of computer programming and taking the mystery out of communicating with a computer. This would be achieved by making computer science a fundamental element of the public school curriculum. The earlier this skill set was introduced, advocates believed, the better (Gardiner, 2014). Encouraged initially by tech advocates in the business world (particularly in the field of video gaming) as well as by government agencies that monitored the expanding influence of technology into all career fields, the campaign to introduce coding into the curriculum gained widespread momentum through a variety of websites devoted to helping schools integrate coding into their curriculum.

Advocates of introducing coding into the curriculum (among them Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, former President Barack Obama, and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates) faced an enormous public relations problem: The stereotype of computer programming as a field was largely negative. Computer programming was seen as boring, repetitive work that appealed largely to introverted types. The challenges of the field, the feel of being a pioneer in a cutting-edge discipline, and the exhilarating problem-solving dimension of the work were seldom extolled. Teaching the careful logic of computer coding would introduce young minds to the rigors of reasoning and how to think through a problem in a careful step-by-step fashion.

Whether students actually pursued computer science, a curriculum element centered on computer coding would introduce students to a way of thinking about the process of thinking itself—after all, computer programs merely mimic human reasoning but at much greater speed. Far from simply introducing students to the potentially intimidating logic of computer communication and the ancient science of logic, learning the basics of coding—much like learning the basics of a musical instrument—would, in fact, encourage genuine creativity. Students would come to understand that every function of a computer, every expression of its considerable data reserves and its intellectual reach, began with a programmer designing the code to instruct the computer to execute that very function.

Applications

Although experimental pilot programs were launched in the United States, success was limited to a handful of private schools and to restricted access programs in a relatively small number of public school systems, most of them in the New York City area. School systems across the country offered what is known as the Hour of Code program in which students were offered programming tutorials after school or in place of a study hall for roughly an hour per week. The Hour of Code program expanded greatly by 2023. (Hour of Code, 2023). Several European and Asian nations began to work out a comprehensive national program for introducing coding into the public school curriculum, and the United Kingdom moved to introduce coding in a sweeping—and controversial—reformation of its public school system. The UK education reform involved billions of dollars invested in technology apparatus for classrooms and for training essentially the entire corps of the nation's schoolteachers in the logic of computer programming. The government's guide to the new program asserted that, "Pupils who can think computationally are better able to conceptualise . . . and use computer-based technology," a necessary requisite for students who will enter a globally connected, digitally dependent economy (Berry, 2013). In this landmark program, coding, not merely computer use, became an intrinsic element of education, like English, science, math, and foreign languages. Michael Grove, Britain's secretary of education who oversaw the revamping, underscored the limits of simply teaching computer use, arguing that teaching kids how to use a computer was as useful as teaching them to "travel in a zeppelin" (Dredge, 2014).

As outlined by the BBC in the weeks leading up to the introduction of the curriculum, the UK model divided the typical education of a public school student into three broad phases based on age (Cellan-Jones, 2014). In the first stage (ages 5-6), students were introduced to the basics of step-by-step logic as a reasoning skill (often by using simple kitchen recipes or by giving fellow students directions for simple tasks). They were schooled in organization logic, from stacking similar shapes to putting together puzzles. They were basically learning the language of algorithms without the digital context. In the second stage (ages 7-11), students used logic and organization to solve problems. They were introduced to the concept of carefully gathering data and accounting for variables, for instance, by dressing for a day with the possibility of different weather events and the importance of thinking through and sustaining a basic sequence of actions, such as tying a shoe. Further, they were introduced to repetition and loop logic, which was the basis for creating and executing routine tasks. Children are ushered through actual websites to appreciate the processes behind the information presented, an experience advocates compared with traditional field trips in which students gain insights about production by visiting a factory. In the third stage (ages 11-14) students were trained in at least two computer languages; learned communication using binary numbers and the tight, clean logic of the commands AND, OR, and NOT; and learned how software and computer hardware cooperate to achieve directed ends. The UK program was by far the most sweeping reformation of public education in that country for more than a century, the goal of which was both practical and idealistic: to create a population not of computer science engineers but rather of adults able not merely to use computers but to understand how they work.

Problems faced by the UK program indicated potential dilemmas for any such sweeping reformation of public education. The initiative was derided as a gimmick designed to create the illusion of a country leaping into the twenty-first century when the reality, critics charged, would be that few students, certainly under the age of ten, would be able to grasp the intricacies of algorithmic logic and the precise language skills necessary for writing effective code. Advocates countered that error is an inevitable element of the curriculum and that students would quickly be taught the value of trial and error in developing code. The country's education ministries moved very fast, and at the time of the initial orientations for the program in mid-2014, a majority of parents were not even entirely sure what was being enacted. It did not help that many parents were not digital natives like their children, and the goal of the program was widely misunderstood and denounced as vocational education. Parents were reassured, however, and encouraged to take an interest in the class projects and homework assignments and to ask their kids questions about computers as a way to bridge the technology gap between the generations. By 2023, the UK had learned valuable lessons about incorporating computer science into its classrooms and was consistently adapting the curriculum to the insights gained and changes in technology (Fowler, 2021).

Viewpoints

When the United Kingdom prepared to introduce coding as a mandatory class for the duration of its public education curriculum, advocates stressed that coding might be more effectively introduced as a part of the curriculum rather than as its own class. Programs have been developed that would introduce students at the middle school and high school levels to the rigors of coding through interactive projects in classes already established within the curriculum (Larson, 2014; Farber, 2013). A math class, for instance, could develop a program to instruct a computer to generate a particular graph or to determine a range of variables to solve a particular equation; a history class could instruct a computer to work through the variable outcomes of a particular battle and the options a general might face; an English class or a foreign-language class could instruct a computer to test the syntactical arrangements of words to test the difference between a run-on and a fragment; a music class could instruct a computer to work out the harmonics of a simple original melody.

Such exercises, though still directed by an instructor, would replace traditional instructional methodologies (that is, the thin dynamic of lecture, note-taking, examinations, and controlled discussion). Students and instructors would work together—indeed, teachers would learn from students whose familiarity with technology routinely exceeds that of their teachers. Digital thinking and problem-solving could supplement, even replace, rote memorization or note-taking. Here students would produce something original while learning through hands-on interaction with the very technology that defines their immediate world of experience.

The applications of coding within an existing curriculum offering would help a student see that computer programming is not so much a field as it is a way of thinking, specifically a way of thinking about thinking. In addition, teachers from widely differing disciplines would find common ground—history teachers could discuss coding problems with biology teachers, and music teachers could solicit advice from geometry teachers. Although such an introduction of coding into classes has been tested in limited pilot programs in the United States, it is likely that across-the-board implementation would require a complete revamping of the educational system. Every teacher would need to be competent in the basics of coding, school systems would have to provide cutting-edge computer equipment and tutorial apps, and parents, administrators, and politicians would have to be convinced of the efficacy and value of the endeavor. In 2021, only 51 percent of U.S. high schools offered computer science programs, and inequities in what schools offered these programs were blatant (Klein, 2021). Computer literacy cuts along age, gender, economic class, and ethnic lines, and because any reformation of a nation's education system would have to be cooperative, the reality of introducing coding across the curriculum is, at best, a working ideal. But coding in the curriculum is gathering momentum as a global education enterprise that recognizes not only the value but also the necessity of educating the next generation in the logic, organization, and thought processes of the computers upon which they routinely rely.

The underrepresentation of girls in STEM careers remained problematic in the twenty-first century. Introducing coding and increasing access to programs that teach coding were seen as key factors in combating this problem. Organizations such as Girls Who Code focused on closing the gender gap in tech-related jobs by teaching coding to girls. Through programs and clubs, Girls Who Code hoped to close the gender gap, especially for girls representing minority populations, by 2030 (Girls Who Code, 2022).

Terms & Concepts

Algorithm: The process of step-by-step reasoning, each step a question that can only be answered yes or no, as a way to guide a computer program to perform a task.

Binary logic: In digital programming, the method of maintaining a language with programming software by the use of either/or (true or false) propositions.

Coding: The devising of computer programs, that is, the symbolic lines of data or instructions, that direct software and hardware to accomplish a particular and intended result.

Computer science: The field of study devoted to computation, specifically the science of coding, that is the processing of information and instructions within a computer system. It combines mathematics, engineering, logic, and physics.

Curriculum: An educational system's course offerings.

Grammar: The entire system of a specific language or the analysis of that language system.

Information technology: The field of engineering devoted to implementing and maintaining computer systems.

Skills gap: In economics, the difference between job availability and qualified applicants to fill those jobs.

Bibliography

About Us. (2022). Girls Who Code. Retrieved May 29, 2023, from https://girlswhocode.com/about-us

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Cellan-Jones, R. (2014, September 1). A computing revolution in schools. BBC News. Retrieved December 25, 2014, from https://www.computingatschool.org.uk/resources/2014/september/computing-in-the-national-curriculum-a-guide-for-primary-teachers

Dredge, S. (2014, September 4). Coding at school: A parents' guide to England's new computing curriculum. The Guardian. Retrieved December 25, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/04/coding-school-computing-children-programming

Farber, M. (2014, December 3). Coding for all ages. Edutopia. Retrieved December 25, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/coding-across-the-curriculum-matthew-farber

Fowler, B., & Vegas, E. (2021, Jan. 19). How England implemented its computer science education program. Brookings Institution. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-england-implemented-its-computer-science-education-program

Gardiner, B. (2014, March 23). Adding coding to the curriculum. The New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/world/europe/adding-coding-to-the-curriculum.html?%5Fr=0

Hour of Code. (n.d.). Hour of Code. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from https://hourofcode.com/us

Klein, A. (2021, Nov. 3). More Than Half of High Schools Now Offer Computer Science, But Inequities Persist. Education Week. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/more-than-half-of-high-schools-now-offer-computer-science-but-inequities-persist/2021/11

Krutsch, E. (2022, Dec. 1). Computer Science Education Week: Explore In-Demand IT Jobs. DOL Blog. Retrieved May 23, 2023, from https://blog.dol.gov/2022/12/01/computer-science-education-week-explore-in-demand-it-jobs

Larson, E. (2013, September 22). Coding the curriculum: How high schools are reprogramming their classes. Mashable online. Retrieved December 25, 2014, from http://mash-able.com/2013/09/22/coding-curriculum

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Suggested Reading

Bellanca, J., and Brandt, R. (2010). 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn. Franklin, TN: Leading Edge.

Collins, A., & Halverson, R. (2009). Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America. New York, NY: McGraw.

Green, M. (2011) 3-2-1 code it. Boston, MA: Cengage.

Gow, P. (2015). A new culture of coding. Independent School, 74(2), 64-70. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=100170120&site=ehost-live

Hayes, J., & Stewart I. (2016). Comparing the effects of derived relational training and computer coding on intellectual potential in school-age children. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(3), 397-411. Retrieved December 27, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=117343051&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Mak, J. (2014). Coding in the elementary school classroom. Learning & Leading with Technology, 41(6), 26-28. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=95312968&site=ehost-live

Shueh, J. (2014). Advocacy groups push coding as a core curriculum. Education Digest, 80(3), 42-45. Retrieved March 22, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=99173572&site=ehost-live