Resources and textbooks for computer science education in French primary schools

Authors

  • Isabelle Vandevelde University of Lille, France
  • Cédric Fluckiger University of Lille, France
  • Sandra Nogry Cergy-Paris University, France

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21344/iartem.v14i1.954

Keywords:

textbooks, computer science, digital, primary school

Abstract

This article examines a corpus of texts that define the scope and objectives of computer science (CS) education at primary school level in France, including textbooks, curricula, and institutional documents. Faced with these new programs, and in the absence of any specific training on methods for teaching computer science, teachers have had to make do by relying on a disparate set of documents ranging from prescriptive and guidance texts, official directives and curricula, institutional documents, text­books, and other books. This article provides an analysis of these documents from a computer science pedagogy perspective with the aim of exploring how they change and evolve through the grades of education. We begin with a transversal analysis to highlight changes in the content taught from one cycle to the next. Then, we focus on how a specific notion, the notion of loop, is introduced to students, in order to characterise how the same notion is formulated and evolves across the different textbooks. In this way, we show that loops are defined differently across textbooks, using vocabulary that is increasingly precise and connected to other areas of knowledge, without being always connected to the digital field.

Author Biographies

  • Isabelle Vandevelde, University of Lille, France

    Isabelle Vandevelde is a PhD student of Educational Sciences at the CIREL laboratory (EA 4354) of the University of Lille. Her research focuses on children's digital culture and computer science learning. Address: Théodile-CIREL, University of Lille, France. [Email: [email protected]]

  • Cédric Fluckiger, University of Lille, France

    Cédric Fluckiger is a professor in educational sciences at the University of Lille and a member of the CIREL laboratory (EA 4354) at the University of Lille. After a PhD (2007) on the appropriation of digital technologies by middle school students, he has recently worked on computer contents in primary and secondary schools, and on the uses of digital technologies in an educational context, by students. He is currently director of the Théodile-CIREL team. Address: Théodile-CIREL, University of Lille, France. [Email: [email protected]]

  • Sandra Nogry, Cergy-Paris University, France

    Sandra Nogry is Associate Professor in Educational Psychology. Her research topics include
    technology use in education and computer science education at primary school.  She studies learning processes in a situated perspective. Address: Paragraphe Lab, Cergy-Paris University, Paris, France. [Email: [email protected]]

Downloads

Published

2022-10-14

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Resources and textbooks for computer science education in French primary schools. (2022). IARTEM E-Journal, 14(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.21344/iartem.v14i1.954