Which way with informatics in high schools in the Netherlands? The Dutch dilemma

Abstract

Informatics is currently being taught in high schools all over the world. In the Dutch curriculum, computer literacy is taught in the lower grades as a compulsory subject, Informatics is taught as an elective in the higher grades of some schools.As a follow-up to the outline of Grgurina and Tolboom (2008), the discussion about the future of Informatics education in the Netherlands is investigated and elaborated in this paper. Our research brings forward four positions of the stakeholders in the field: the negative-critical view, the positive-realistic view, the no-nonsense view and the innovative view. Extreme positions are either 'to terminate the school subject, because teachers are not qualified and there is little relation with Informatics as a scientific discipline', or 'to strengthen the school subject because of its social relevance'. The latter position will be substantiated by a discussion of the novice-expert approach for teaching and the importance of enculturation and situated learning. As a way to strengthen secondary Informatics teaching, especially in the Netherlands, Schoenfeld's framework is advised (Schoenfeld, 2010). © 2011 Vilnius University.