International Examinations. Professional Development for Teachers. Teaching and Assessing Skills in. Computer Studies. Stewart Wainwright

Transcription

1 International Examinations Professional Development for Teachers Teaching and Assessing Skills in Computer Studies Stewart Wainwright

2 PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS syndicate OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY , USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcón 13, Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa Cambridge University Press 2002 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2002 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeface Meridien System QuarkXPress A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN paperback The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content will remain appropriate.

3 Contents Foreword v 1 Introduction 1 2 Learning skills 3 3 How learning styles should influence teaching methods 14 4 Teaching strategies 22 5 Assessment 38 6 Coursework 50 7 Practical assessments 64 8 Conclusion 72 Appendix A: useful sources of information 74 Appendix B: glossary 78 Appendix C: Cambridge International Examinations syllabus for Computer Studies: assessment criteria 79 Appendix D: learning styles 83 Index 88

4 1 Introduction My aim in writing this book is to provide you with an understanding of the skills needed in teaching Computer Studies and the skills needed by your students if they are to be successful in this subject. I also want to encourage you to use self-evaluation techniques to examine your own practice, reflect upon what you teach and how you teach it. As a result, I hope you will consider ways of incorporating some of my suggested strategies into your teaching methods. Although the book is primarily intended for those teachers preparing students for the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) IGCSE, GCE O Level in Computer Studies or IGCSE in Information Technology, it will also be applicable to teachers preparing students for examination in these subject areas through any syllabus. Every classroom situation is different: learners at different stages of development, different levels of teacher experience and different levels of resources available for you to use in the classroom. This leads to great variations in teaching and learning situations and so it is not possible to specify one particular approach. The activities suggested in this book have been tried and found to be successful for my students, but they may need to be adapted by you for use with your students. However, I will attempt to provide suggestions for teacher tasks and student activities which offer a variety of techniques. One of the facilities offered by CIE as part of its professional development programme is that of in-service training. I have been fortunate to work with teachers and share ideas and thoughts with delegates on several occasions. During our sessions, I encourage delegates to exchange addresses so that they can continue to exchange ideas and share resources. I also bring my resources on CD so that we can share these resources and discuss resource writing. Delegates are thereby able to return to their schools with new ideas and resources and contact addresses for other teachers of the syllabus. CIE has also recently established a discussion group specifically for teachers of Computer Introduction 1

5 Studies and Information Technology; to join the discussion group simply visit the website at This is a forum where teachers of the CIE syllabuses can ask questions and share ideas and resources, no matter where in the world they may be. Every good lesson has a structure, which includes the setting of objectives and a description of the activities. This first chapter sets the objectives for all other chapters. Chapter 2 explores the variety of learning and study skills which students need to acquire in order to be successful in computer studies. A number of activities are introduced which will enable the students to acquire these learning skills and at the same time increase their subject knowledge. For teachers to make use of a range of strategies, they need to be aware of the differing learning styles and how these relate to differing teaching styles. Chapter 3 briefly discusses these different learning styles, links with schemes of work and the need for differentiation. Chapter 4 then offers general teaching strategies, together with specific examples of their use. Assessment skills are discussed in Chapter 5, at the end of which you will be familiar with various assessment techniques and the most appropriate use for each style of assessment. Coursework is an integral component in the final assessment for the external examination in computer studies. Chapter 6 discusses the setting of coursework; the organisation, management and supervision of coursework within schools; and possible frameworks for the documentation of coursework. Finally, pointers regarding interpretation of the assessment criteria leading to accurate assessment of the coursework project are given. Practical assessments as a means of assessing information technology skills are discussed in Chapter 7, including an approach to preparing for the assessments. Details of useful sources of information books and Internet sites can be found in Appendix A. The glossary in Appendix B defines terms which may need clarification, but it does not contain definitions of technical terms in computing. For such definitions, please refer to the British Computer Society s A Glossary of Computing Terms. As a new syllabus comes into effect in 2004, the assessment criteria are included in Appendix C. Finally, Appendix D discusses, in more detail than is given in Chapter 3, learning styles and how teachers learning styles may link to their teaching styles. 2 Introduction