To implement Informatics for All, research is needed to understand exactly what to teach, how to teach it and when to teach it.
The goal of Informatics education research is three fold, to help in designing an updated interesting and challenging curriculum, to find effective teaching methods and tools for all school levels, and to find more effective ways of teaching the teachers, i.e. the pedagogical content knowledge. Since informatics education is a relatively new discipline, research can benefit from building on the experience of other scientific disciplines and from international cooperation, while paying attention to cultural and national aspects. This cooperation is especially necessary where small countries are
involved.
Curriculum
Research should be carried out so as to produce adequate curricula for the different schools levels: primary, lower secondary and upper secondary. It has to be done iteratively by designing, implementing, testing and refining both materials for students
and guides for teachers. Research should involve researchers in Informatics education, both in Universities and in schools, and also school teachers so as to base proposals and
experimentations on the actual school context.
Teaching methods and tools
It is most important to find effective teaching methods for the different school levels, and explore the use of methods that will support the teaching and learning processes, assisting teachers in their endeavours, like for example the use of augmented intelligence (i.e. the ability of computers to exhibit increased forms of “intelligent” behaviour) in educational environments. Although ongoing research of Informatics education has taken place for many years, most of it refers to high education / college or high school; there is still not enough evidence as to how to teach the subject effectively at all levels in schools. Further research is required to address the issues, particularly in primary and lower secondary school. Research of effective teaching methods has
shown that high quality teaching can have an impact on students’ choice of the subject in school and later on recruiting for the subject in higher education; this is very important in times when we try to engage more students in the Informatics disciplines and later in industries.
Teaching the teachers
What should a proper well-established teacher preparation programme include? What tools should teachers be given to properly convey the disciplinary knowledge and skills to their students? What is the pedagogical content knowledge? Is different teacher training for different levels of school needed? These and other questions should be explored. Some research referring to these questions has been published, but there is scope for cooperative activity building on research findings of other scientific disciplines and exploiting cooperation with disciplines such as Education and Learning Sciences.