Maria Knobelsdorf, University of Dortmund, Germany - Didaktik der ...

ABSTRACT
Bringing Contexts into the Classroom –
A Design-Based Approach
Detlef Rick, Marcel Morisse, Ingrid Schirmer
Universität Hamburg, Department of Informatics
Vogt-Kölln-Straße 30
D-22527 Hamburg, Germany
{rick | morisse | schirmer}@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
Project-based learning and application-oriented approaches
drawing on real-world issues and examples, have always been
widely used in both secondary and higher Computer Science
(CS) education. Recent demands for teaching CS or Informatics
1 in context and building courses on coherent application
areas outside CS go even further [4, 23]. In Germany the
open working group IniK (Informatik im Kontext) compiles
educational material and concepts for teaching Informatics
in context [42, 24, 10, 8]. However, there is only little theoretical
foundation for IniK as an educational approach and
its implementation at schools and universities [7].
In this paper we suggest a process model for bringing
‘real-world’ application contexts into the Informatics classroom.
The proposed model is grounded on a design-based
study and has evolved from theoretical and practical insights
gained in five university-level project courses and five associated
school projects. The model focuses on the development
of context artifacts which originate from the real-world context,
and teaching units building on the context artifacts.
When teaching units are instantiated in the classroom, context
artifacts are recontextualized in an educational context
and are employed as learning equipment fostering the students’
imagination, and thus anchoring the real-world application
context within the classroom context.
In the tradition of classical German Didaktik models [18,
28], the process model aims at providing a tool and a terminology
for the preparation and reflection of instruction. On
the basis of the model we discuss both the potential value
and the drawbacks of teaching Informatics in context.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
K.3.2 [Computers and Education]: Computer and Information
Science Education
1 We use the term Informatics in a broad sense with a view
to describe the disciplines of Computer Engineering, Computer
Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems
and others.
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WiPSCE 2012 Hamburg, Germany
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111
General Terms
Design, Human Factors
Keywords
Informatics in context, learning environment, process model,
greenfoot, design-based research
1. INTRODUCTION
The Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry is equipped with a ceiling that has been bewitched
to look like the sky outside. So for J. K. Rowling’s famous
first-year student Harry Potter 2 it was “hard to believe there
was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn’t
simply open on to the heavens” (p. 129). Apparently the
founders of Hogwarts for some reason deemed it necessary
to let the school’s inside resemble the outside world in some
degree.
Recent demands for teaching Computer Science and Informatics
in context [4, 7, 23, 24, 39] request educators to
contextualize their teaching and to bring the outside world
into the classroom. Although CS “would seem to want to
connect to the real world” and although for some projectbased
and application-oriented courses it is not at all uncommon
to build on a consistent real-world context, Cooper and
Cunningham [4] criticize that “computer science curriculum
recommendations are silent about the opportunity to do so”
and that “most widely used texts do not seem to have much
content addressing real-world questions” (p. 5).
Guzdial [15] qualifies this critique, remarking that “it is
reasonable to fear that students who learn computing within
a context might over-specialize that knowledge” and that
“the additional knowledge taught about the context might be
a distraction, especially for the lower-ability students” (p. 5).
Guzdial comes to the conclusion that context can provide
additional relevance if there is evidence that students can’t
see meaning and usefulness of decontextualized content.
Instead of trying to answer the question of whether contextoriented
teaching approaches actually result in higher student
motivation and commitment and thus in better learning
and deeper understanding [39], in the following we propose
a process model for bringing ‘real-word’ contexts into the
classroom environment. The model has evolved from five
cycles of our university-level project course for Informatics
students majoring in Computer Science (CS), Software
2 J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Bloomsbury, London, 1997.