The role of teachers in implementing curriculum changes

  • Authors:

  • David Thompson;Tim Bell;Peter Andreae;Anthony Robins

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

  • Venue:
  • Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

In 2011 New Zealand introduced computer science into high schools after a long period when computing was mainly focussed on training students to be users. The transition was rapid, and teachers had little time to upskill to prepare for the new topics, and yet there was widespread voluntary adoption of the new standards. The role of teachers and the national teachers' organisation in making the change has been pivotal, and this paper reviews the changes from the teachers' perspective. This story is intended to inform those planning similar changes in other countries, and provide a context for the next steps in NZ. The discussion centres around a survey of 91~teachers, which reveals strong intrinsic motivation from teachers to make the changes, a mixture of prior knowledge and skills that teachers shared with each other through peer support and online communication, a low level of confidence as teachers of computer science, and a need for further professional development.