High School Computer Science Teacher Preparation Programs - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 266

15.1.4 Comments About the Model

The rapid growth of the computing filed highlights the importance of computer
science education. The above model is based on the Israeli experience with respect
to a nationwide high school computer science curriculum. Clearly, it is interesting
to ascertain the model's applicability to other places on the globe. Further, since
the model consists of five components which are interrelated to each other, it is not
always clear which component is the chicken and which is the egg. In other words,
if a state wishes to apply the Israeli model, how should it proceed? One possible
answer for this question is that the model implementation can be initiated by the
establishment of computer science teacher preparation programs. The next section
describes one plausible way to foster the creation of such programs.

15.2 Construction of a Computer Science Teacher Preparation

Program—the ECSTPP Workshop 6

In this section, we present the rationale, structure, and contents of a proposed work-
shop on the Establishment of a Computer Science Teacher Preparation Program
(ECSTPP), targeted at computer scientists and computer science curriculum devel-
opers who wish to launch a computer science teacher preparation program at their
universities but lack knowledge about the actual construction of such programs.

15.2.1 Rationale

Based on the central position of computer science teacher preparation programs
in the presented model in Sect. 15.1, it is suggested that countries/states that wish
to adopt the model may consider starting its application with the facilitation of
the proposed ECSTPP workshop, which eventually will foster the establishment of
computer science teacher preparation programs.

15.2.2 Population

The ECSTPP workshop is designed for the following groups of computer science
practitioners:

• Computer scientists who wish to establish a computer science teacher prepara-
tion program in their universities, but are not familiar with the practice of teach-
ing computer science in the high school and with the research in computer sci-
ence education.

6 Based on Hazzan et al. ( 2010 ).