A Present-Day “Glass Bead Game”: A Framework for the Education of Prospective Informatics Teachers Inspired by a Reflection on the Nature of the Discipline

Abstract

Informatics has an intrinsically multifaceted nature. The usual approaches to plan classwork in the high school are organized around concepts, principles, tools. However, each concept, principle, or tool can be seen under diverse perspectives, in particular those held by mathematicians, scientists and engineers, with quite different implications from a conceptual, methodological and epistemological point of view. Accordingly, the learning issues and the pedagogical means to address them are also different. Hence, it may be worth considering a complementary approach in order to shift the focus from the notions to learn to the (cognitive, methodological, creative) processes required from the students, the latter being tightly connected to the aforementioned general perspectives. The framework outlined in this paper is the basis of a core module as part of the renewed program offered by the University of Udine for the education of prospective teachers of informatics. This module addresses in an integrated way the nature of our discipline and the teaching of programming as a key activity to appreciate the distinctive features of each perspective. It aims at deepening the teachers’ awareness about the variety of coexisting views and their pedagogical implications.