{"id":39463,"date":"2017-06-21T14:51:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=39463"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:51:53","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:51:53","slug":"coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/","title":{"rendered":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Despite computing education in UK schools going through a massive revolution over the past few years to try and make it more relevant to our increasingly technology driven lives, the new GCSE in computer science has failed to attract much interest<\/a> from students.<\/p>\n

Figures from the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation<\/a> (Ofqual) show only a small rise in students taking the new computer science GCSE. This is despite the course having been rebranded and the old GCSE in information and communication technology (ICT) being scrapped.<\/p>\n

When the decision to replace the ICT GCSE<\/a> with only a GCSE in computing was made back in 2015, many teachers and researchers warned<\/a> this might happen \u2013 given that ICT and computer science are very different topics of study.<\/p>\n

There were also issues raised about the new course content and the fact that a lot of the focus was placed of coding and programming \u2013 something that many students view as irrelevant to them.<\/p>\n

My own ongoing research<\/a> interviewing pupils in year nine about the changes in the way computing and ICT are being taught, has also shown this to be the case. Many of these pupils were frustrated rather than inspired by the shift in the new curriculum<\/p>\n

The British Computer Society has equally warned that the number of pupils studying for a computing qualification could halve by 2020<\/a> \u2013 which would be a disaster for the economy.<\/p>\n

Not relevant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Computer skills are already vital to most jobs and this will continue to be the case, but what is still unclear is what sort of computer skills these will be. Education policy seems to give the impression that it is more important to know how to program a computer than how to use one well.<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue that what children actually want to know about \u2013 things like cyber security and how to get rid of computer viruses \u2013 isn\u2019t actually covered in the new style course. So while most children are fully aware that the future world of work will require high level computer skills, they do not see the link between being taught how to program in computer languages and what they will need in the future.<\/p>\n

This confusion isn\u2019t their fault, and a lot of it stems from the fact that teachers who previously taught ICT are now being required to teach some combination of computer programming, computer science, computational thinking, and digital literary, with little training or support.<\/p>\n

Each of these areas is considered to be important knowledge in terms of the \u201cdigital economy\u201d, but what this means is that pupils are receiving a lot of mixed messages on which bits they really need to learn.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, this also means computing lessons are now being split between a little bit of time spent looking at concepts of how a computer works, a little bit of time on computational theory \u2013 such as search and sort algorithms \u2013 and a lot of time learning programming.<\/p>\n

Dull and frustrating<\/strong><\/p>\n

Computer programming is hard. Like learning the violin, or a second language, anyone can do it, but for most it takes a significant amount of dedication, time and practice.<\/p>\n

The computer science GCSE<\/a> requires pupils to be proficient programmers to be successful. This has meant teachers now have to spend a great deal of time on programming in the year proceeding GCSE to bring pupils up to speed.<\/p>\n

Often this is done through a number of tasks, which are as uninteresting as anything found in the old ICT curriculum. This leaves many pupils with the impression that computer science is programming \u2013 and that programming is a dull and frustrating operation of trying to find where you forgot to put a semi colon. As you can imagine, this doesn\u2019t inspire many pupils to want to choose computer science as an option at GCSE.<\/p>\n

From the pupil\u2019s point of view, why would anyone who thinks they want to be a mechanic, a doctor or an accountant want to spend any time writing programs in code \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t seem relevant to them.<\/p>\n

But the thing is that each of these careers is being transformed by the digital economy \u2013 as is almost every profession. Only providing a single GCSE option of computer science fails to meet the needs of any student \u2013 except those that have at least some interest in becoming a computer scientist.<\/p>\n

To only offer computer science is like dropping all the sciences except physics and being surprised when all those who had previous taken biology didn\u2019t just happily go along with it.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, if we want to ensure British children have the skills they need to be successful and are not left behind in a digital economy, there needs to a computing curriculum that covers a whole range of areas \u2013 not just how to program.<\/p>\n

Pupils also need to be spending more than one hour a week \u2013 the current standard \u2013 learning computing prior to their GCSE years. If this doesn\u2019t change, we are putting the future of the country at risk by disenfranchising many more young people away from computing based careers. And if we want to inspire the next generation of computer scientists, this isn\u2019t the right way to go about it.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Benjamin Wohl is a PhD Candidate at Lancaster University <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite computing education in UK schools going through a massive revolution over the past few years to try and make it more relevant to our increasingly technology driven lives, the new GCSE in computer science has failed to attract much interest from students. Figures from the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) show only […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":39464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[92219],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-39463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-computer-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCoding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite computing education in UK schools going through a massive revolution over the past few years to try and make it more relevant to our increasingly technology driven lives, the new GCSE in computer science has failed to attract much interest from students. Figures from the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) show only […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"251\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":899,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/compsc.png\",\"keywords\":[\"computer science\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/\",\"name\":\"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/compsc.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/compsc.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/compsc.png\",\"width\":680,\"height\":251},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Despite computing education in UK schools going through a massive revolution over the past few years to try and make it more relevant to our increasingly technology driven lives, the new GCSE in computer science has failed to attract much interest from students. Figures from the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) show only […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":251,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade","datePublished":"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/"},"wordCount":899,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png","keywords":["computer science"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/","name":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png","datePublished":"2017-06-21T21:51:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/compsc.png","width":680,"height":251},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/coding-curriculum-new-computer-science-gcse-fails-make-grade\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Coding the curriculum: new computer science GCSE fails to make the grade"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}