MN has for many years been in the international forefront regarding integration of digital competence in higher education. Now, we bring this expertise into Norwegian schools. From the autumn of 2020, programming and computational thinking are included in the curriculum for all students in school. The math teachers are responsible for introducing key concepts and basic structures in programming. The subjects natural sciences, arts and crafts, as well as music also have explicit goals for core skills and competencies in programming. In addition, all teachers in primary and lower secondary school are required to include programming and computational thinking into their subjects in order to enhance learning and problem solving.
Competence development in programming and computational thinking
The Norwegian Centre for Science Education (only in Norwegian), KURT (Centre for Teaching and Learning in Science) and CCSE (Centre for Computing in Science Education), all at the MN-faculty, have developed competence building resources for primary school and lower secondary school to help teachers include programming and computational thinking in their teaching. With the help of online resources, the schools can work locally with in-service teacher training. The resources are tailored for school owners, school management, teachers and teacher educators throughout Norway, and contribute to all Norwegian students being better equipped when they continue to higher education.
MN has stated in its strategy that the Faculty shall be an international leader in the integration of digital competencies into all its education programs. The strategy further states that the Faculty shall contribute to professional development of schools. The work with the competence building resources supports both of these points in the strategy.
The competence building resources are already being used by many schools throughout Norway. Locally, this work is initiated by the school management and the school owners.
The Norwegian Centre for Science Education has led the work of developing the competence building resources on behalf of The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, with Wenche Erlien as project manager. KURT and CCSE have been responsible for developing the competence resources for the 33,000 teachers in mathematics.
Why is this important for the MN Faculty?
In 2023, we are welcoming new students with completely new competencies to our Faculty. They have worked in a more inquiry-based way with programming and computational thinking as an integral part of their education. This has an impact on how we plan our own teaching. By having good knowledge of the school curricula and contribute towards the schools’ academic and technological development, we can ensure a better transition from school to university. This, in turn, will result in even more of our students graduating at a high international standard, which our strategy states.
We are in the process of providing a competence resource package for upper secondary school
Programming and computational thinking will also be integrated in upper secondary school. Just now, the development of similar resources for mathematics 1T, mathematics 1P and natural sciences for both university-preparatory and vocational subjects in upper secondary school is starting. This project is led by KURT and is planned to be ready for use in the spring of 2021.
We look forward to welcoming the first students who have acquired skills in programming and computational thinking in school to our Faculty when they eventually embark on higher education.