The First Decade of Informatics in Dutch High Schools

Informatics is currently being taught in high schools all over the world. In the Netherlands, where all students are expected to become computer literate in the lower grades of high school (Hulsen et al., 2005), it has been decided not to consider computer literacy as being part of Informatics. What, then, should be the content of the Informatics curriculum taught in the higher grades? What should be taught, how and to whom? How should students’ achievements be assessed? The answers to these questions completely depend on defining what the objectives of teaching Informatics are. This case study will discuss these objectives, along with the content of the Dutch High School Informatics Curriculum, the experiences resulting from the initial implementation of this curriculum, including the setting in which Informatics presently finds itself, and in the course of this we will provide answers to the above questions.