Educational standards in school informatics in Austria

Abstract

In the last two years educational standards have been an important issue when discussing the different student achievements in upper secondary education of the EU member countries. Standards are an indicator of quality at school and should be applied to different subject areas in general and to vocational education (and training). Computer science or information technology is one of the most interesting subjects in this context: It is pretty new in all curricula and is strongly linked to practice. The definition of different achievement levels to understand important models and patterns of school informatics is rather easy. There are also good links to certification standards in industry and expert circles. Therefore, the paper outlines a model of four levels for standards of certification in information technology skills. It fits well for 13 year (7th grade) to 18-20 year (12-14th grade) old students. Critical success factors are discussed. First experiences with the model have been analysed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.