Teaching Planning - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 201

11.2 Top-Down Approach for Teaching Planning

The top-down approach for teaching planning starts with a broad perspective re-
lated to the planning of an entire curriculum (e.g., CS1; see Sect. 11.2.1), continues
with the planning of one topic from the curriculum (Sect. 11.2.2), and addresses the
planning of a specific lesson (Sect. 11.2.3). We also suggest looking at building an
understanding of a concept in a spiral gradient manner (Sect. 11.2.4). In all these
stages, we refer to a multifaceted consideration that a teacher should be aware of
during teaching planning.

11.2.1 Broad Perspective: Planning the Entire Curriculum

A high school teacher is supposed to teach specific curricula to specific classes
each specific year. In order to achieve this goal and to teach properly all the cur-
riculum contents, teachers must plan their teaching. The first step of this process is
the breakdown of the entire curriculum to a list of contents, and the allocation of
approximate number of teaching hours for each content.
Even though there are some traditions in the order of teaching a specific cur-
riculum, some educators can learn from others' unique ideas or develop their own
order of teaching that fit their experience and teaching believes. For example, the
tradition is to teach loops before recursion, and in most cases arrays are also taught
before recursion; nevertheless, there are different and opposite approaches as well
(see, e.g., Bruce et al. 2005 ; Mirolo 2011 ).
In all cases, however, a yearly time allocation should take into the consideration
different aspects of the learning-teaching process, both external-to-the-class factors
and internal-to-the-class factors, combined with pedagogical factors.
The external-to-the-class considerations relate to the school organizational
framework, and include factors such as, the weekly lesson schedule, the computer
laboratory availability and the time allocated to lab experience (see Chap. 8), the
number of tests that should be administrated according to the school policy, and
other school constraints (e.g., trips and special events).
The internal-to-the-class considerations relate to the characteristics of each spe-
cific class, and include factors such as, the number of pupils in the class and its
general level, pupils' abilities and whether these abilities are homogenous or not,
pupils' temperament, and more. Needless to say that the class characteristics are
among the most important factors determining the teaching plan in general and, in
particular, the teaching strategy a teacher chooses to apply.
While the role of class characteristics in the teaching plan is clear, we demon-
strate the potential influence of external-to-the-class factors on the teaching plan.
For example, different teaching plans should be set if out of the 3-weekly teach-
ing hours, 1 h takes place in the computer lab or all lessons take place in the lab.
The number of times that a teacher meets the class each week is also a meaningful
factor. Teacher can meet the pupils for two lessons of 1 h in different days or for