Creating and Testing Textbooks for Secondary Schools An Example: Programming in LOGO

The main goal of this paper is to present our approach for writing textbooks that are self-contained and available for individual learning. These texts are written in the language of the corresponding pupils and are not restricted by any length limitations. This allows us to write as clearly and thoroughly as possible. Minimizing the time for mastering the subject instead of minimizing the presentation length is the main goal. The detailed lecture notes provide a safety net for the teacher and the pupils alike. They do not restrict teachers in their interaction with the class or in the freedom of choosing alternative ways in approaching the subject. On the contrary, the freedom of designing the content of the lesson increases because pupils have the certainty to be able to learn from the lecture notes if something was not fully understood. Here some general rules for writing learning aids are presented and then applied for an introductory course about programming in LOGO. Finally, we summarize our teaching experience in different classes with the produced learning aids. 1 General Concepts and Basic Rules We are missing textbooks for teaching fundamental concepts of informatics in german that would at least partially satisfy the following requirements: – The main focus is on presenting the programming skills and fundamental concepts and ideas of information processing instead of reducing the computer science education to computer driving license and product knowledge. – The texts are suitable for learning autonomously for pupils in the corresponding age. – They systematically build the foundation of concepts following the historical roots of informatics in a similar way as other natural sciences do. We do not discuss the misleading concepts of computer science education that were broadcasted in many countries as the consequences of the emphasis created by the fast development of information technologies. First, we present some guidelines we use when creating learning aids. R.T. Mittermeir and M.M. Sysło (Eds.): ISSEP 2008, LNCS 5090, pp. 216–228, 2008. c © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 Creating and Testing Textbooks for Secondary Schools 217 1. Mastering the Topic to be Teached. At the beginning it is important not to think about the didactical methods to be used, but to check your own knowledge. Is my understanding of the subject deep enough?Do I see the topic in the correct context of my scientific discipline? Do I know the history of the development of the basic concepts of the subject I want to teach? Do I understand why the concepts were developed in the way they did and not in another one? There is always something that still has to be discovered. Study the appropriate literature and discuss the open questions with colleagues. 2. Which Notions and Concepts are Known? A careful formation of concepts is crucial for the success in teaching. A clear picture about the previous experience of the class has to be established and written down. The main point is not to think about skills and methods only, but mainly about concept formation in the sense of building new notions (terminology). Which notions and concepts are already known and how deeply are they understood? Which terms are unknown or only partially understood? One fixes the current state of the knowledge and thinks about questions and tasks suitable for checking the previous experience. This is not a black and white game. For instance, one can ask to which extent are the pupils able to correctly and transparently describe their course of action in a natural language (without programming). 3. Learning Objectives. What do I want to achieve? Again, thinking in the black-and-white-manner and stating that the pupils learn something that was unknown before, has to be avoided. Deepen the understanding of basic concepts, extend the applicability of different methods and develop various skills. All this has to be explicitly formulated. 4. Recurrent Theme. The chosen learning objectives need to be arranged in a linear sequence. The order of introducing new notions and concepts has to be defined. Usually several suitable orderings exist. This part of your work is more or less based on your experience. A good idea is to discuss your concept with colleagues and test it in classes. 5. High Willingness to Revise. The next steps go into the details. Here, you might recognize that some of your educational strategies are not optimal or even do not work. Be prepared and willing for frequent revising and change the work you have done in 1. – 4. if necessary. 6. How to Explain? Do not yet think about the choice of your didactical method. Formulate all explanations in detail. Use the language which is already understood by the class. Do not use terms or words that have not been carefully introduced before. Check and verify your explanations. 7. Interaction between the Teacher and the Class. For each learning step, think about the possibility to communicate with the class. Which questions and tasks are suitable for checking and deepening the understanding of the class for the just introduced subject? What kind of misinterpretations can occur and how to deal with them? The interaction with the class has to be planed and written down. 218 K. Freiermuth, J. Hromkovič, and B. Steffen 8. Exercises and Solution Proposals. Think about exercises for individual work. Solving these exercises has to guarantee to master the subject introduced to a reasonable extent. The number of exercises has to be larger than needed in average. For those exercises that essentially check or deepen the understanding of introduced notions and concepts, provide a detailed description of the ways how to solve them. Successful work with the formulated exercises must give the pupil a guarantee of being successful in the examination. A variety of tasks has to assure the ability of the class to apply the acquired knowledge in different situations. The tasks for the exam are formulated in harmony with the exercises and the learning objectives. 9. The choice of the Didactic Methods. Now decide about the didactical methods for each part of teaching. Think about those parts of the education process which require a strong control and which parts can be developed by the class on their own. As soon as you have taken this decision you can adopt the texts in an appropriate way. 10. Summaries. At the end of each teaching unit write a summary. The summary repeats the learning objectives and the knowledge of the unit in the acquired language of the class. There are many principles and small hints that should be considered during the whole work on a textbook. Here we list some of them: – It is worthwhile to ask the class to keep a dictionary of the notions and concepts introduced until now. If a notion or a concept is too complex record the expected depth of its understanding. – Use pictures where they can be helpful. The meaning of these figures has to be carefully explained. Ask the class to develop similar graphical representations. – Never use words whose meaning is not completely clear to everyone in the class. – All written tasks need to have a clear and unambiguous interpretation. Omit long sentences whenever possible. The tasks should be clearly structured. – No long sequences of explanations without intermediate questions and tasks are allowed. – The most efficient way to teach is to connect the new knowledge with the previous experience. Try to use analogies whenever possible. – Essential things have to be clearly highlighted. Posing appropriate questions and tasks can be helpful for this purpose. – A good motivation must always be given. It is not necessary to always search for applications. The aim to discover something essential or to learn to understand something complex can be even more exciting. – For each small part of your work with the class, plan the interaction (communication) with the pupils. Creating and Testing Textbooks for Secondary Schools 219 2 The Concept of Our Textbooks To support and encourage teaching of computer science in german speaking countries,we decided to develop severalmodules, eachdedicated to another topic.These modules have to be as independent and self-contained as possible. There is no restriction given on the number of pages and so we use as much space as we need to explain everything carefully, to train and to verify the acquired knowledge. The style of these modules is close to “ETH-Leitprogramme” [1], which is an improvement of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), also known as Keller Plan. The main idea, however, is not to create texts for learning autonomously. The texts may be used in this way, but the main purpose is to provide complete information about the topic, and so to assure as many highquality iterations of the subject as the individuals of the class need or wish. In addition to detailed explanations, the text contains numerous questions, tasks and exercises which are placed exactly where we recommend to apply them. At the end of every lesson the module contains also questions and exercises to check the understanding of the lesson. Furthermore, the textbooks contain hints for teaching persons. These hints are based on our experience and call attention to possible troubles and misinterpretations usually occurring when teaching some more complex matters. Proposals to overcome these difficulties are given too. Each module is divided into lessons. One lesson is usually for 2–4 hours of teaching and is devoted to one or more new concepts or methods. 3 Introduction to Programming with LOGO Here we present the concept of the module for an introductory course on programming. The first six of the fourteen lessons can be used in primary schools and the last four lessons are a challenge for the final classes at secondary schools.