Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education (Technology-Based Education Series)

CROSS NATIONAL POLICffiS AND PRACTICES ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

Technology-Based Education Series VOLUME 1

Series Editor Ronald E. Anderson, University of Minnesota, USA

Editorial Board Guillenno Asper, University of Brasilia, Brazil Henry J. Becker, University of California, Irvine, USA Betty CoUis, University ofTwente, The Netherlands Andris Grinfelds, University of Latvia, Latvia Gunter Haider, University of Salzburg, Austria David Hawkridge, Open University, United Kingdom Unna Huh, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea Beverly Hunter, Bolt Beranek and Newman, Boston, USA Colin Latchem, Curtin University, Perth, Australia Ronald Ragsdale, OISEIUniversity of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Gavriel Salomon, Haifa University, Haifa, Israel Decker Walker, Stanford University, USA Ryo Wantanabe, National Institute for Educatinal Research, Tokyo, Japan

The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education Edited by

TJEERD PLOMP Faculty of Educational Science & Technology ^ University ofTwente, The Netherlands

RONALD E. ANDERSON Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, USA. and

GEORGIA KONTOGIANNOPOULOU-POLYDORIDES Department of Education, University ofPatras, Greece

WKAP ARCHIEF

ff KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON

A CLP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 0-7923-4217-8

Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers incorporates the publishing programmes of D. Reidel, Martinus Nijhoff, Dr W. Junk and MTP Press. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands

FOREWORD

This book presents some of the results from the second stage of lEA's study of Computers in Education (CompEd). lEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, conducts international comparative studies focussing on educational achievement, practices, and policies in various countries and education systems around the world. It has a Secretariat located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. lEA studies have reported on a wide range of topics, each contributing to a deeper understanding of educational processes. The CompEd study is a project that sheds light on the way computers have been introduced in education and on how they are being used across the world today. The study proceeded in two stages with data collected for stage 1 in 1989 and for stage 2 in 1992. Results from both stages have been published in a variety of publications. This book reports about a special part of the study. Student achievement and school processes come into being in the context of the structure and the policies of national (or regional) education systems. The variety found in the CompEd results led us to ask how much might be explained by differences in these national or regional contexts. That is the reason the CompEd study took the initiative to invite the countries participating in the study, as well as some other countries that have had interesting developments in the domain of educational computers, to write a chapter describing their policies and practices regarding computers in education. A large number of countries accepted our invitation, resulting in this book which provides us with some important baseline data about the beginnings of the computer's introduction in education. IEA is very grateful to the following organizations which were the major contributors in financing the international costs of the study: Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Institute for Educational Research (SVO) of the Netherlands; Commission of the European Union of the European Community (Brussels); National Institute for Educational Research (NIER) of Japan; and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the USA. Some of the chapters summarize country reports which were prepared for the European Union. We are grateful to the Commission of the European Union for the permission to publish summaries of those reports in this book.

The book is the result of the efforts of many individuals. A special thank you must go to staff of the International Coordinating Center of the CompEd study under the leadership of Willem J. Pelgrum, which provided us the environment to work on the book. Very special thanks are expressed to Monique Kole, who did the desktop publishing of the book, and to Vicki Lundmark, who copy-edited the contributions of so many non-native English writing authors. In this we have generally applied American English spelling. Those readers wishing additional information on this or other lEA studies may correspond directly with the lEA Secretariat.

The Editors

lEA Secretariat Herengracht 487 1017 BT Amsterdam The Netherlands email: [email protected] Tel.:+31 20 625 3625 Fax:+31 20 420 7136

VI

CONTENTS

Introduction T. Plomp, G. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides and R.E. Anderson Curricular Aspects of Computers in Education T. Plomp, N. Nieveen and H. Pelgrum Cross-National Perspectives on Inequity in Computer Education R.E. Anderson and V. Landmark Educational Paradigms and Models of Computer use does Technology Change Educational Practice? G. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides

The Austrian Context of Computers in Education G. Haider Policies and Practice in the Belgium French Community with Respect to Computers in Education E. Boxus, D. LeClercq and C. Duchateau Teaching Informatics in the Bulgarian Schools P. Assenova, R. Nikolov, L Stanchev and J. Koleva The Policies of China for Computers in Education J. Zhang New Information Technologies in the French Educational System S. Pouts-Lajus, E. Barchechath and N. Barre Computers and Education in the Federal Republic of Germany H.-G. Rommel and M. Lang Greek Schools and Computer Education: Socio-Cultural Interpretations G. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, S. Georgakakos^and A. Zavoudakis Computers in Education: The Indian Context A.K. Sharma and S. Singh New Information Technology in the Irish School System: A Summary P.J. McKenna Japan's National Policies on Computers in Education S. Matsubara The Korean Context of Computers in Education U. Huh Policies on Computers in Education in the Republic of Latvia A. Grinfelds and A. Kangro The Luxembourg Context of Computers in Education A. Werne

1 9 27

49

85

113 139 157 175 197

223 249 265 283 299 319 339

Policies on Computers in Education in the Netherlands T. Plomp, E. Scholtes and A. ten Brummelhuis The Slovenian Context of Computers in Education M. Trobec and M. Setinc Spanish Policies on New Technologies in Education E. Veiguela Martinez and C.SJ. Villacorta Computer Education in Thailand N. Wattanawaha New Information Technology in Schools in the United Kingdom C. Bergen The United States Context of Computers in Education R.E. Anderson

Vlll

359 381 397 413 429 445

TJEERD PLOMP, GEORGIA KONTOGIANNOPOULOU-POLYDORIDES, AND RONALD E. ANDERSON

INTRODUCTION

In the history of education, the 1980s will stand out as the decade during which many countries throughout the world introduced computers in education on a large scale, the first stage of a technological innovation which is unprecedented in its scope. Many countries were facing questions about the possible and desired roles of computers in education. What should be the place of computers in the schools? Is there a need for separate courses in computer literacy and computer science? Should computers be used to improve and enhance teaching and learning in existing subjects? Which strategies should be applied to accomplish a successful implementation of computers in the schools? At the time, there was little information available about the situation in the schools which could guide educators and policy makers in answering these questions. In the middle of the 1980s, different countries were at different stages of introducing computers into their educational systems. Some countries had clear policies, but not always with the same emphasis. Other countries were in the stage of conducting pilot studies to gain a better understanding of the potentials of this new technology for education and the reactions teachers and students displayed toward it. During international conferences and meetings of educational policy makers, it became clear that a great interest existed among countries to learn from each other's experiences. These considerations~and the fact that the introduction of computers to education is probably the first major technological innovation in education which could be studied systematically almost from its earliest state of development—led the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (lEA) in 1985 to decide to embark on an international comparative study of Computers in Education (CompEd). It was decided that data would be collected in a number of countries at two points in time regarding the content and outcomes of this innovation.

The lEA Computers in Education (CompEd) Study The CompEd study was planned as a two stage study. In principle, the study was designed so that countries could decide to participate in either one or both of the two stages. Stage 1, with data collection in 1989, was aimed at collecting national, school, and teacher level data.

T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 1-7. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

TJEERD PLOMP, GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, & RONALD E. ANDERSON

The survey, primarily descriptive in nature, focussed on discovering how computers were being used, the extent and availability of computers in schools, the nature of instruction about computers, and the estimated effects that computers were having on students, the curriculum, and the school as an institution. The second stage of the study, with data collection in 1992, consisted of two parts. The first part constituted a follow-up of stage 1 to allow the study of changes over time. The second part of stage 2 involved assessing the effects of school, teacher, and teaching variables on student outcomes in the domain of school computer usage (functional computer knowledge and skills). The results of 1989's stage 1 have been published in Pelgrum and Plomp (1991, 1993) and in many national reports and other international publications (see Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993, for an overview). The first results of stage 2 have been published Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, and Plomp (1993). Publications in progress include Pelgrum, and Plomp (forthcoming); Anderson, Lundmark, Pelgrum, and Plomp (forthcoming); and Anderson and Haider (forthcoming). The CompEd study resulted in many interesting and sometimes surprising outcomes which begged further explanation. For example, why did 100% of the elementary schools have computers in the USA in 1989 while only 12% of the schools in Japan had computers in the same year? Why is teaching and learning about computers the most frequent use of computers in the secondary schools of most countries? Why does more variation exist between schools in some countries than in others in terms of the types of computer equipment that are used? How can certain relatively large changes that occurred over time in some countries and not others be explained?

The Genesis and Purpose of This Monograph It was felt among the countries that participated in the CompEd study that some questions of this kind possibly might be answered if more contextual information was available for interpreting specific country results. For this reason, the group of national research coordinators of the educational systems that participated in the second stage of the CompEd study agreed that a series of articles should be prepared on the nature of the computer education policies in the respective countries. Recruiting Country Contributions Altogether, this book contains descriptions of the national policies and practices regarding computers in education for 19 countries. Ten of the countries that participated in stage 2 of the lEA CompEd study are

INTRODUCTION

represented: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the USA. But beyond that, it was felt that it would be interesting and augment the book's relevance to acquire reports from additional countries-countries with different levels of economical development, different trends in computer use in education, and from different regions of the world. In the same period of time, the European Union (EU) was conducting a similar project in which each member of the union had been encouraged to prepare a national report on "new information technology in education" describing the policies and practices regarding the introduction of new technologies, especially computers, into their educational systems. In consultation with the European Union, we invited the EU countries that had not participated in the CompEd study to provide a summary of their national report to the EU for inclusion in this monograph. As a result, country reports were received from six more countries, the Belgium French Community, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Finally, to enhance the volume's "global coverage," a few other countries were invited to submit contributions, including those that had participated in only the first stage of the CompEd study. This step yielded country reports from the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand. Scope of the Country Papers The aim for the country papers was twofold, to provide context information for interpreting specific outcomes of the CompEd study as well as to demonstrate the rich variation in policies and strategies on computers in education being applied in countries around the world. To that end, the authors of the country papers were provided with a proposed outline consisting of the following main topics: the structure and nature of their educational system; computer-related policies (illustrated with examples); issues, if any (such as equal opportunities or problems with sustainability); current trends in policies and practices; and suggestions for the future. Each main topic was additionally broken down by a set of exemplary topics which might be addressed and drafts for three countries (India, the USA, and the Netherlands) were prepared early to serve as models for the other country authors. Authors were asked to follow the proposed outline and to illustrate each main topic with examples typical of the policy or practice in their country. For several reasons, a detailed outline could not be imposed and the proposed outline was expected to serve more as a structuring instrument than as a rigid, unifying frame which all authors had to suit. For example, while authors from the countries that participated in the lEA CompEd had much new data on hand with which to inform their reports, authors from EU

TJEERD PLOMP, GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, & RONALD E. ANDERSON

countries needed to rely upon collapsing their more extensive reports to the European Commission. There were also differences between authors in background and style. The fact that some authors are specialists in the field of computers in education while others are policy makers within their ministries of education resulted in different choices about what to emphasize and what examples to use to portray national developments. On top of this, there are clear differences between countries in economic condition, information technological development, and historical background. Altogether, our approach has resulted in a set of country papers which show a number of commonalities but also reflect the cultural richness and variation we have looked for. Summary Chapters Some overview chapters have been added to this volume to discuss important educational policy issues related to information technology in education. Those chapters, for which the country reports served as the most important source of information, provide a context for approaching the reading of the country chapters. The chapter on the curricular aspects of computers in education discusses how computers are used to fulfill different goals across countries. The computer can be treated in the curriculum as an 'object' of teaching and learning or as a 'medium' for improving teaching and learning or as a deeply integrated 'aspect' of school subjects (such that the subjects can no longer be taught without the use of computers or, more generally, information technology). The chapter summarizes policies and trends and illustrates them with examples taken from the country reports. Also the problems of implementing these new technologies in education are discussed within the perspective of recent technological developments and modern thinking about education and learning. The second summary chapter discusses the widely recognized problem of equity and information technology, primarily in relation to two commonly disadvantaged groups, females and the poor. The chapter examines the extent to which equity problems are recognized by policy makers and reflected in the policies and practices described by the country papers in this volume. Trends in computer-related education are discussed from the standpoint of seeing equity as the access to, use of, or knowledge about computers. The chapter also outlines what actions are being taken in different countries to address computer-related inequities. The third chapter analyzes for some countries to what extent the policies and practices related to computers in education fit the historical paradigm of a country. Emerging modes of computer use across countries vary as their

INTRODUCTION

educational paradigms vary. The interaction between specific societies and cultures and educational technology is reviewed for China, France, Greece, the Netherlands, and USA. The types of transfers and practices actualized in educational computing are affected by a variety of factors including society, economy, and culture in individual countries, the educational paradigm at work, the "nature" of the new technology, and the model of educational computing officially aimed at. Educational computing seems to evolve around a tension between "encyclopeadic" and "pragmatic" educational practices and yet has uniquely shaped outcomes in each specific culture. Such unique outcomes raise questions as to the convergence forced by internationally disseminated products to serve educational computing. Some Vocabulary Before proceeding to the country chapters, we need to establish some basic terminology to clarify the scope of these discussions. First, we define "computer education" in this book very broadly to include informatics and instruction in the use of information technology (IT). When instruction is delivered with or about any technology closely linked with computers (such as electronic networks and multi-media), that also is considered to be computer education. However, we do not consider stand-alone video presentations, distance learning, or video games as part of computer education because typically they are not directly integrated with generalpurpose computer systems. Although some regard information technology (IT) to encompass considerably more than computers and computer technology, for present purposes, the two phrases "information technology" and "computer technology" will be considered equivalent. After all, during the period covered in the country papers (the decade of the 1980s and the beginning of 1990s), computers were the predominant and, in many countries, the only information technology used in education. For the same reason, we also consider informatics education and computer education to be essentially equivalent. Although informatics is a regular field of study in most European countries, the term is foreign to education in other countries such as, for example, the United States. The unique element of informatics that distinguishes it from computing is a heavier emphasis upon information science or general information processing. But, as technology and education evolve together, there will always be a need to coin new words to draw additional distinctions. For instance, the word telematics has been used in some countries to talk about the combination of informatics and telecommunications.

TJEERD PLOMP, GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, & RONALD E. ANDERSON

Another area for which a basic terminology is needed defines the different levels of education. In this book, we name them as follows: • •

• •

elementary education (for the age group 6-11 years); secondary education (for 12-18 years old), within which we distinguish between lower and upper level as well as between general and vocational education; vocational education is that part of secondary education that prepares pupils for the work force; and higher education encompasses all post-secondary education.

While we strived to use the same general terminology throughout this book, readers will find that individual authors sometimes utilize words with a slightly different frame of reference or introduce new words that carry a special meaning in a particular country.

The country-by-country reviews in this volume form the first compendium that describes policies and practices related to technology and general education from around the world. Perhaps its greatest significance is that it gives scholars, educators, and decision makers a new opportunity to compare diverse approaches by providing access to cross-national information on philosophies, policies, practices, and problems. This anthology is also significant in that its production implies that more publications of this type will follow in the future. Innovations in microcomputing were made possible by the march of computers into the schools in the last two decades. Now we are witnessing innovations in the technology and the application of global networking that, during the coming two decades, will integrate computing resources even more deeply into the essential processes of education. One of the ongoing research challenges will be to understand how local and national cultures mediate this phenomenon and how systems of education rise to the challenges and the opportunities the new technologies bring.

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INTRODUCTION

References Anderson, R.E. & Haider, G. (Forthcoming). Word Processing in School. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Anderson, R.E., Landmark, V.A., Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (Forthcoming). Practical Computing Skills. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Pelgrum, W.J., Janssen Reinen, I.A.M., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Schools, Teachers, Students and Computers: A Cross-National Perspective. International Association for the Educational Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the Hague, the Netherlands. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (Eds.) (1993). The lEA Study of Computers in Education: Implementation of an Innovation in 21 Education Systems. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (1991). The use of computers in education worldwide. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (Forthcoming). The lEA Study of Computers in Education II. Oxford: Elsevier Sciences.

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

The country papers on policies and practices concerning computers in education in this volume show that a wide variety of computer use can be found in schools around the world. In this summary chapter, we will look at that variety from a curriculum perspective, focussing on elementary and secondary education. Interesting questions in this context are to what extent computers constitute a new domain of study, whether computers are considered mainly as alternative tools in education, or whether technological developments in our society will lead to the integration of computers and computer-based technologies in education with the purpose to improve the quality and efficiency of education. A review from a curricular perspective is complicated by the fact that the authors of the country papers were not asked to provide a complete and systematic description of the curricular aspects of computers in education, but only to provide a general overview and perspective (illustrated with examples) of their country's policy on computers in education. This situation imposes limitations on the kind of analyses the country papers can support. In summarizing their situations, the authors had to make choices with regard to the scope and emphases they would cover depending on what they saw to be the major contours of this innovation and on how they weighed and evaluated its important characteristics at the stage of development their own countries had reached. This means that fme-grained analyses and comparisons of the data from the reports are not possible. Rather, the reports together should be considered as a collectively-formed interpretative framework that shows the many different angles and perspectives from which landscape-pictures of computers in education (some showing more or different details than others) can be taken. The next section presents various perspectives for using computers in schools' curricula and relates them to possible policy rationales. That provides a conceptual framework for discussing in the following section the curricular perspectives on computers in education. The last section draws some conclusions regarding the wider perspective of implementing the new technologies in education. We use the term curriculum throughout in its broad meaning to encompass "what" is being (or should be) taught in schools as well as "why" and "how" it is being taught. Also, the terms information technology (IT) and computers will be used interchangeably as the computer was the most important application of information technology receiving attention in education during the period discussed in this book (the 1980s and

T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 9-26. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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early 1990s). Finally, we use the phrases "computers in the curriculum" and "computers in education" interchangeably, too, because this chapter is restricted to considering only the applications of computers in the curriculum.

Policy Perspectives and Curricular Usages Computers can be used in education in many different ways. A well-known and often applied distinction is made between the computer as an 'object' of teaching or learning and the computer as a 'tool' for improving teaching and learning. Here, we will briefly discuss these two usages and link them to possible policy making strategies. Basically, the use of computers as object refers to teaching and learning about information technology. In many countries, this is taking place in (lower) secondary education through introductory computer education or information and computer literacy courses. Many also include computer-as-object units as part of some existing school subject such as mathematics or mother tongue. When the computer is being used as a tool in the curriculum, a further distinction can be drawn between (i) situations in which teachers voluntarily use the computer as an extra medium or as a substitute for existing media, and (ii) situations in which the computer is integrated so completely in a course or a full curriculum that the teaching of that course or curriculum is no longer possible without it. We call the first situation the use of the computer as a medium; in the second situation, the computer forms an integral aspect of the course or the curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1992). The Computer as a Tool The use of computers as a medium-thai is, as a tool or an aid for teaching and learning-encompasses, for example, all forms of computer-assisted instruction. This type of use can contribute in two ways to educational practice. First, it may improve the educational achievement and effectiveness of education (as computer usage for remedial purposes demonstrates). In other words, technology can be instrumental in realizing existing educational goals in a better way and often for more pupils. But new technologies also have the potential to bring within reach certain instructional activities which were not possible before (such as microcomputer-based laboratories or simulations of complex processes and systems). In this way, computers have the potential of contributing to the realization of "new" educational goals, such as the teaching of problem-solving and productive (as opposed to reproductive) cognitive skills. This last example illustrates that the boundary between the computer as 'medium' and the computer as 'aspect' is in reality not always clear cut.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

11

The use of the computer as an integral aspect of the schools' curriculum can be found in the whole curriculum of a school or just in certain subjects. Examples often exist in vocational schools which prepare students for jobs in industrial and business sectors where information technology is already completely integrated (for instance, in the electrotechnical industry or in banking). It is important to realize that such a complete integration can be found also in general education. In several countries, the examination specifications of certain subjects are such that these subjects can no longer be taught without the use of computers. Science and economics requirements in upper secondary education in the Netherlands are examples. Concrete computer applications in education may fit in more than one of these curriculum perspectives. For example, a school may allow students to work with spreadsheets as part of a lesson about computers (that is, treating the computer as 'object'). Spreadsheets can also be used as a tool ('medium') in an economics course for doing complex calculations. But in the case of an advanced economics course, the use of the computer for spreadsheet work could also be considered as an integrated 'aspect' of that course. These examples illustrate that taxonomies to describe the possible uses of computers ('object', 'aspect', 'medium') should be viewed as conceptual frameworks to support the analysis and discussions of policies and practices on computers in education. Conceptually, they can be distinguished very well, but they cannot always be separated in practice. Nevertheless, they provide a good framework for discussing some of the results from the country papers presented in this book. Links to Policy Making On each level in the educational system, school, district or region, and state or nation, policy makers are forming decisions with respect to the introduction of computers in education. Such decisions deal with more than questioning what type of hardware and software should be used in schools. They also address curricular concerns such as technology's desired effects on education, needs for inservice training of teachers, and sometimes even the necessity of rearranging or adapting the physical facilities of the schools to accommodate computer use. Different visions about the place of information technology in education may lead to different emphases in policy goals and, consequently, in actual policies. For a better understanding of their possible relationship, it is useful to reflect how certain visions in policy making are related to possible uses of computers in the curriculum. Hawkridge (1989) summarizes a number of policy visions as what he calls "rationales." The most important ones are these three:

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•

•

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the social rationale which reflects the belief that all pupils should acquire a general knowledge of and familiarity with computers as a preparation for their future roles in society and especially to become well-informed citizens; the vocational rationale which expresses societies' needs for having workers who are skilled in technology use for their fields (in other words, implying that students need to be prepared to use computers in their future jobs or careers); and the pedagogical rationale which supports the use of computers to improve and enhance teaching and learning processes.

Often a combination of rationales underlies a country's policy. But it is important that the underlying rationales of policies on information technology in education be made explicit because they bear an influence on the direction through which computers will be introduced into an educational system. If, for example, a government decides that the social rationale should be given priority above the pedagogical and vocational rationales, the decision will have consequences for the (type of) hardware to be chosen, the educational software to be developed, and the inservice training to be organized. In principle, each policy rationale for introducing computers in education can be realized through a variety of computer usages and applications in educational practice. But each can be seen on a general level to correspond with a separate category of the curricular computer uses presented above. The social rationale ("everybody needs to have some knowledge about and experience with computers") might be realized most efficiently by making the computer an object of teaching and learning. The vocational rationale ("preparation is needed to use computers in future jobs") is being operationalized in schools when information technology becomes an integral aspect of the schools' curriculum, whether across the curriculum or in isolated subjects. And the pedagogical rationale ("the use of computer applications will improve the learning and teaching process") is reflected in the use of the computer as a medium—that is, as an aid in teaching and learning—but also for certain applications which we labeled the use of the computer as an aspect. (See the example above regarding the advanced economics course). Again, this last sentence illustrates that we are not talking about a rigid, one-to-one mapping of policy rationales onto the possible computer usages in the curriculum. In that respect (similar the three kinds of curriculum usages), they can be distinguished conceptually, but cannot always be clearly separated in practice. On the other hand, this global mapping of policy rationales on computer usages helps us to understand how policy decisions about the use of information technology in education can be linked with certain practices and applications.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

13

Policies and Practices with respect to Computers in the Curriculum General statements in the country papers illustrate the dominant visions directing policies on computers in education, many of which refer to the importance of preparing children for a life in a technological society. The way computers are actually used in the schools should be seen in light of the lively debate many countries held on the question of whether attention should be given to computers in a separate subject (the computer as object) or whether the computer should be treated as an educational tool (the computer as medium). Some countries (like Spain and India) explicitly do not aim to create a new school subject, but use computers as tools to enhance the learning process. Other countries take a less extreme position. In the United Kingdom, for example, it is expected that most requirements for IT skills and applications will be met through core and foundation subjects, but it is also considered important that aspects of IT capability should not be developed in isolation from each other. In the USA, where education is the responsibility of each state, the computer integration approach appears to be winning, but "the educational technology policies most often consist of loose and unexplicit guidelines"; it is up to the administrations of individual schools and districts to decide when and how to implement computer education. In Greece, it is formal policy to abandon some of the outdated "technical approach" (computer literacy and programming language) in favor of the "integrated model," indicating that both computer literacy and the use of computers to support the learning of other subject matters are desirable educational objectives. In Japan, the individual teachers determine whether or not an informatics subject-area will be included in the teaching of other school subjects. In China, the kind of computer use depends on the condition of the areas. China's report states these goals: In the less advanced areas, relatively simple optional computer courses and extracurricular activities with computers should be offered as far as possible in all general secondary schools by the year 2000. In the areas with the best economic development, compulsory computer courses and more advanced optional computer courses should be offered in all general secondary schools. The rest of this section characterizes how computers are being used in education as object, medium, and aspect. Because most developments for computers in education in the 1980s started in the sectors of general

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TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

secondary education (for students aged 13 to 18) and vocational education, countries generally began only limited activities in primary schools (ages 6 to 12) during that time. But a brief description of the situation in the sector of primary education will also be given. Computers as an Object in Education Many countries indicate the importance of familiarizing students with different aspects of the computer as part of compulsory education ('social rationale'). This policy principle is explicitly stated in some of the country papers. The remark of the authors from Luxembourg that "The children of today have to be prepared for the society of information and conmiunication of tomorrow" reflects the motives stated also in the reports from China, the Netherlands, and the USA. The authors from the Belgium French Community put it like this: "Information technology must be part of the cultural background of today's citizen and . . . [teachers] themselves as well as their pupils must learn this new science"; and the report from Ireland claims that "there is a need for young people to be selective and critical in their use of the resources that the coming information age makes available to them." Most teaching about computers or information technology is taking place in secondary education. A well-known variety of names labels this new subject in the curriculum: computer literacy, computer awareness, information literacy, computer studies, (basic or introductory) computer science, educational computing, and so on. The country reports are not specific enough to allow a thorough analysis of the commonalities and differences among the computer curricula across countries. Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, and Plomp (1993) learned from a curriculum analysis conducted in 1990 with the countries participating in the lEA Computers in Education Study that consensus hardly exists within countries in regard to the definition of computer-related goals, let alone between them. At a more global level, however, the country reports in this volume mention certain curriculum topics quite consistently, especially computer handling, data processing, applications, and computing's social aspects. One of the major problems noted by the country authors concerns the need for a regular updating of computer-related curricula. The more information technological developments have been resulting in user-friendly application tools, the less the technical aspects of computers (for example, programming) are being emphasized as important educational goals. In some countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, and Ireland, programming is still considered an important part of learning about computers while several other countries such as France, Luxembourg, Spain, the USA, Slovenia, and also Ireland report a shift towards the use of more general purpose software like spreadsheets, word processors, and database managers. According to the report from

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

15

Ireland, it seems obvious that girls respond more positively to the information processing aspect of information technology than to the technical aspects for which boys show greater interest. With respect to the place of computers as objects of teaching and learning in the school curriculum, different policies are applied. Many countries, for instance China, Japan, Greece, Ireland, and Luxembourg, have chosen to create a new school subject. Others, like France, Germany, and England, have made learning about computers part of their existing school subjects. The Netherlands is in fact applying a combined approach. In addition to giving a small separate course in information and computer literacy for 20 lesson periods, schools are also expected to make use of information technology in subjects such as physics, mathematics, and mother tongue. Often schools in the countries which do not have separate subjects on computers provide short, hands-on courses (to convey some elementary knowledge and operational skills in computer use). Bulgaria takes this approach to help improve students' abilities to use computers in existing school subjects. Some countries, like the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, offer optional specialized courses along with a basic course. Most countries with teaching about computers as a priority have included it as a compulsory part in the curriculum, an approach that is in line with the policy principle underlying a social rationale, namely that everybody needs to have some knowledge about and experience with computers. The importance of designating computer education as compulsory can be illustrated with the example of Ireland where the Computer Studies syllabus is not obligatory and, therefore, a majority of schools have not chosen to teach the syllabus. To summarize, many countries have introduced computers as an object of teaching and learning in secondary schools. Between and sometimes also within countries, a great variety is found in the content and the place of this new topic in the schools' curriculum. To what kind of balance this situation will develop in the near future is difficult to predict as the technology is still changing rapidly and will continue to influence discussions about information technology as an object in the curriculum. Computers as a Medium in Education Much attention is paid in the country papers of this anthology to the use of computers as an educational medium for improving the teaching and learning processes (the pedagogical rationale). The papers express a variety of goals and expectations in this regard. Sometimes statements are general. The UK's report says "IT in schools should be used to enrich and extend learning throughout the curriculum," and Spain's says "the aim will be to teach skills

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

and concepts by means of new technologies wherever they prove to be more useful than traditional resources." Authors from some countries, like Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the USA, are more concrete about what is meant by improving teaching and learning processes through the use of computers. In most cases, it is considered important for giving learners a more active role during the learning process and emphasizing more student-centered than teachercentered orientations in the schools. For example, in the Luxembourg paper, the hope is expressed that "the teachers' increasing awareness of the computer's potential for student-centered learning will act as a catalyst for further instituting computer use across the curriculum." The paper of the USA reflects the potential richness of the use of computers as a medium with a presentation of five different orientations: • • • •

•

Efficiency orientation - offer a structured study environment for large numbers of students at once. Teacher empowerment orientation - adapt technological tools so as to extend teachers' capabilities. Constructivism orientation - teach students to create and be creative; facilitate higher-level reasoning. Diversity and equal opportunity orientation - foster instructional diversity through the use in the classroom of multiple approaches, curriculum strategies, and technology; insure that students from all groups participate in computer learning. Student-driven learning - allowing students to have a say in how their learning is structured.

The last three of these can be considered potential elaborations of a studentcentered orientation. The country papers mention many applications of the computer as a medium, varying from computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and drill and practice use to more complex ones, like simulations (e.g., Belgium), educational games (e.g., the Netherlands), micro-worlds (e.g., Belgium), and the application of general purpose software like word processing, spreadsheets, graphics editors, databases, and music programs (e.g., Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Korea, and Germany). Computer use has also been shown to be critically important for children with disabilities, functioning as prosthetical tools and providing other assistance in learning (e.g., Austria and Ireland). In spite of an emphasis in many national policies to integrate computers in existing subjects and apply them towards more learner-centered approaches.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

17

the intended policies and high expectations have often not (yet) been reaUzed in practice. Greece, France, and several other countries refer to this problem, which has also been shown in studies like the lEA CompEd study. In general, the country papers in this volume display a tendency toward disappointment that so little progress in achieving these goals can be observed, and they express hesitations about how realistic the goals are. Together, the authors of the country reports proposed many explanations for the discrepancies between policy and practice: lack of equipment within schools and classrooms (mentioned by Belgium, Bulgaria, USA); insufficient high quality software/software in own language (by Austria, Belgium, China, Germany, Bulgaria, Thailand); lack of funding (Latvia); locating computers in computer rooms or labs, which does not help to promote the integration and acceptance of computers as an ordinary aspect of school work (Ireland, USA); operating entrance examinations to upper schools in the form of written tests (Japan); lack of interest, motivation, and computer competence among teachers (example Austria, Belgium, Thailand); the slow pace at which teaching methods adapt (Luxembourg); brain-drain (that is, well-trained and qualified computer teachers with upto-date knowledge of computer technology accept jobs in the private sector instead of teaching) (Thailand). Nevertheless, most countries also express several reasons for holding positive expectations of the computer's use as a medium in classroom settings. The French report suggests that a different organization for making computers available (for example, bringing in portable units) may add more flexibility to the classroom use. The Belgium French Community's report remarks that the 'dialogue' between the world of education and the changing technological world has now become more or less permanent, which should result in a different attitude towards applying information technology within schools. Furthermore, many country papers surmised that more advanced software, multimedia, and (in the future) electronic networks may change the current situation in which general purpose software is used much more frequently by schools than specifically-designed educational applications. Several country papers refer to the need for changes in the role of teachers and teaching strategies, calling for more student-oriented teaching approaches, less whole classroom teaching, and more use of computers in interdisciplinary projects (computer use across subjects). But the existence of a proper technological (hardware and software) infrastructure is not enough to

18

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

assure realization of the high expectations for information technology's capacity to increase student-centered teaching and skills in problem solving, in measuring and controlling events, in doing investigations, and in constructing one's own knowledge. An important condition for all such goals is that teachers adopt new beliefs, namely that such a new orientation in education is useful and that information technology is a useful medium for advancing it. Obviously, therefore, much attention has to be paid to teacher (inservice) training. Computers as an Aspect in Education Characteristic of computer use as an integral aspects of schools' curricula is that teaching and learning have become unthinkable without information technology, either because a subject can only be taught using new technologies (for example, in vocational education) or because the technology has infused the educational and management philosophies in the schools. To achieve the use of computers as aspect, the same kind of conscious planning that goes into using computers as an object of teaching and learning or as a medium for improving the quality and efficiency of educational processes has to venture one step further. Noteworthy in this volume is that few explicit references are made to the vocational rationale, although some countries do refer to more specific goals for vocational education. For example, Korea mentions explicitly the need to develop information-industry personnel, and the USA paper states that many discussions of computer education refer to labor force productivity, global competitiveness, career advancement, and 'training for the workplace' as the key rationales for computer education. Nowadays in the industrialized countries, many professions are unthinkable without the integration of the computer (or more general information technology applications) in the workplace, and information technology has a prominent place in vocational education and training systems of these nations. In fact, the link to business and industry is so close that vocational education follows the technological developments in the societal sectors for which it educates and trains professional workers almost automatically. Two kinds of computer users can be distinguished in vocational education: computer professionals and other kinds of professionals who also happen to use computers. The former group is found predominantly in special programs in higher education. The latter group can be found in technical vocational schools where CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machines are being used (for example, in Ireland and the Netherlands) or in schools for drawing

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

19

and graphic design which make quite extensive use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) software (for example, in Spain). The example of Korea has already been mentioned above. Commerce schools in many countries are using office applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and database management. In general (secondary) education, the computer is becoming increasingly integrated in certain subjects to the extent that examination specifications demand they can only be taught with the use of computers. Examples are subjects like economics and physics and chemistry (in France, the Netherlands, and the Belgium French Community) in which learners or teachers or both use computers for spreadsheets and laboratory tools. Another example, reported for Ireland, is the use of the computer in the teaching of metal works and materials technology. The roots of this development are twofold. On the one hand, the disciplines underlying these school subjects have grown to be so permeated with information technology that teaching them without information technology is no longer thought relevant. A second consideration, as the report for Luxembourg explicitly mentions, is that having computers integrated in school subjects is judged important and useful for pupils who will either take up a profession or who are going to pursue further studies in higher education in one of the subjects. One step beyond the use of information technology in only a few subjects, in both vocational and general education, is the use of computers across subjects. This application has already been introduced in interdisciplinary projects in Luxembourg at the junior secondary level and in France in the school resource and information centers. The educational goal for this kind of application in France is to lead pupils to autonomy in the access to information resources and processing. One can envisage for the future that computers (or information technology) will become a general aspect of students' and teachers' school life, being used as an integrated tool in all activities. This kind of thinking is explicitly alluded to by Ireland. A situation in which the use of computers as ^medium' will have been converted into the use of computers as 'aspect' in the curriculum is a necessary condition to realize the use of information technology for enhancing higher-order skills. Computers in Primary Education In most countries, one could find during the 1980s an awaiting attitude with regard to the introduction of computers in primary schools. An exception is the USA where almost all primary schools had acquired computers by the end of that decade. But otherwise, in only a few countries, France, the UK, and the Netherlands, were all primary schools equipped with computers

20

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIBVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

(through governmental programs) by the early 1990s. Other countries, such as Germany and the Belgium French Community, were conducting pilot studies to collect experiences with computers in primary schools. No clear consensus can be found across countries with respect to computerrelated goals for primary education. But there seems to be some agreement that computers have great potential value for primary education. Their use could contribute to the enhancement of learning aspects like achievement, creativity, problem-solving skill, and cooperation among pupils, not to mention computer familiarization. However, educational goals for particular primary age and grade levels and the curricular consequences thereof are hardly elaborated. In general, using computers as a cross-curricular tool is seen as the most important goal for primary schools. The question is not yet answered to what extent this goal requires the teaching of a certain amount of basic knowledge and skills. Some countries, like France, Ireland, and the Netherlands, state distinctly that computers should not be an object of study at the primary level, while other countries are experimenting with introductory teaching units for children in the 6 to 12 year old group. Slovenia and China, for example, refer to making extra curricular teaching about computers available for interested pupils at the primary level.

Discussion From the lEA CompEd study (Pelgrum et al., 1993), we know a number of things about how computers are being used in education in the early 1990s. The most popular purpose for computer uses in schools is to teach about computers and applications and how to handle them (computers as 'object'). Playing games is by far the most popular activity in elementary education while general secondary education students spend more time on "serious" activities like word processing and programming. Among the noncomputer-subject teachers, only a relatively small number use computers regularly for instructional purposes in subjects like mathematics, science, and mother tongue (computers as 'medium'). Moreover, the types of computer use they employ are not very advanced. Asking students to learn new materials, run drill and practice programs, or to take tests with computers hardly uses the full potential of the technology. For example, in the USA, the emphasis on structured computer uses (like drills and simple tutorials) persists, even though educational computing leaders for the most part advocate the use of unstructured applications (like simulations and general purpose software) to develop higher-order thinking and problemsolving skills.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

21

Many country papers in this volume confirm the conclusions of the lEA study. From them, we concluded that a tendency to disappointment can be observed about the small progress made toward the (perhaps unrealistic) goals of integrating computers in existing subjects and attaining more learneroriented teaching strategies. An important question now is how to interpret the situation. Should it be viewed as a disappointing one or as one that represents a "natural" stage in bringing about change in education? Taking the latter position, we will next discuss what factors many countries should take into account in their future educational policies on information technology if they wish to get closer to achieving the high expectations so widely held for educational practices. The Implementation Process A starting point is to recognize that integrating information technology in daily educational practices constitutes a process of bringing about change in education. It is important to emphasize that in many countries now the use of computers as a medium in education cannot be looked at as something in isolation or as an add-on to the common repertoire of schools and teachers. But schools are also expected to put into practice a shift towards more student-oriented teaching so that students become more active learners (and not just recipients of information) and to pay more attention to the development of problem-solving and other higher-order skills. The present situation with respect to computers in education reflects an implementation process in an early stage of development (Plomp & Voogt, 1995). The easiest way for schools to respond to the challenge of "joining the computer revolution" is to start with the simplest applications such as drilland-practice and activities which usually involve taking the whole class to a computer laboratory. As Walker pointed out, "anything else requires more money, more effort and expertise from teachers, and more variance from existing school practices" (1986, p. 35). Plomp and Voogt (1995) argued that the educational community should not be disappointed by this situation, particularly if one regards the use of computers in education as a complex innovation. We regard it so, agreeing with Walker who wrote: If even a small part of the visionary dreams of computerbased education is to be realized, major changes will be required in the day-to-day activity and interaction patterns in classrooms. . . . Developing these new patterns will require collaborative effort on a large scale sustained over a decade or more (p. 33).

22

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

From this perspective, the current situation of computer use in education can be considered as only a beginning stage of a process that could last many years. Given modern thinking about the broad goals of education, it is desirable for the use of information technology in education to develop further-away from the easiest responses to the more demanding technological challenges. The modern approaches that emphasize student-centered active learning typically aim to help students learn to construct their own knowledge. Challenging them to make their reasoning explicit and confronting them with the consequences of their reasoning helps students learn how to learn. But such approaches, as they presuppose individualization of instruction, are asking for teachers to fill new roles. Instead of merely presenting scientific facts and theories, teachers have to become facilitators of the learning process and organizers of effective collaborations between students. Information technology provides powerful applications which can be used to enhance the curriculum, as well as teaching and learning processes, in the desired directions. For example, students using simulations can gain an understanding of the reality by manipulating critical variables; students working with modeling systems can gain an understanding of relations within a system; students working with microcomputer-based laboratories can practice analyzing and interpreting data; and students retrieving and analyzing data from databases can practice problem-solving skills. The CompEd data show that applications of this type are seldom occurring in the early 1990s; some of them only take place in special project schools. Yet, to be in line with current thinking about what goals should be accomplished in education, this type of application can be expected to grow in the future. In conclusion, we are not yet in the final stage of a process of change with respect to integrating information technology in educational practice. To proceed beyond the current stage, collaborative efforts (Walker, 1986) will be needed among the main actors in the domain of education, namely the policy makers on the one hand and schools and teachers on the other hand. In this context, at least two factors will be important: achieving a good balance between *top-down' and 'bottom-up' strategies for bringing about change and teacher training. 'Top-down^ versus 'bottom-up' strategies. The IEA CompEd study shows that in general there are two different initiators for introducing information technology in schools. When initiatives are prompted by the teachers or the schools, they represent a 'bottom-up' strategy; when they come from (national, state, or local) educational authorities, they represent a 'top-down' approach.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

23

Where the country papers discuss policy formation with respect to computers in education, they primarily demonstrate a top-down approach. Sometimes a policy is directive. The China paper reports, for instance, that the political leadership pronounced that computer use be moved "from being merely the focal point of experiment and testing in some schools to a phase of widespread notice." Other countries, such as French-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands, apply a policy of stimulating the use of computers in education. However, it seems as if such a 'top-down' policy only works when it is made obligatory, either when schools are obliged to teach about computers or when the use of the computer as a tool in existing subjects has become part of the examination program (which is an example of the computer as an aspect in education). Illustrative of this is the Belgium paper's statement that "In the general track, nothing is centralized; the various uses recommended for information technology depend on the decisions every inspector makes for his or her district." A nice example of a country in which a bottom-up approach has been combined with a top-down approach is Bulgaria, where step by step, the idea has developed of defining some compulsory minimum of knowledge and skills for computer education, and that idea has now been extended into a governmental intention to formulate educational standards for informatics teaching. The importance of the interrelatedness of 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches is empirically supported in ten Brummelhuis' (1995) analysis of the Dutch data from the lEA CompEd study. He found that the implementation of computer use in Dutch (junior secondary) education is influenced by a set of six interrelated variables which clearly include support from the level external to the schools ('top-down') as well as support at school level ('bottom-up'). Ten Brummelhuis illustrated their interrelatedness with an example: The top-down variable 'external financial support' showed a direct negative effect on the intended implementation of computer use, but exerted a positive influence on the outcome in combination with other 'top-down' measures ('external training support' and 'hardware/software infrastructure') and all three bottom-up variables ('perceived innovation relevance,' 'school policy for computer use,' and 'monitoring and problem coping strategy'). This research clearly suggests that "the lack of success of innovations characterized by a 'top-down' policy is caused by the deficiency of 'bottomup' elements in the implementation process" (p. 95). In this context, the recommendations of Fullan, Miles, and Anderson (1988) can be considered appropriate. They suggest a process planning or

24

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

adaptive approach in which a variety of strategic initiatives can be launched with a strong emphasis on learning from practical experience. They believe that the most promising strategies center around developing the competence of teachers and training consultants, diffusing and supporting effective practices, networking, and building organizational capacity-all of which point to the importance of teacher (inservice) training and support activities. Teacher (inservice) training and support activities. A major and complex innovation like the introduction of computers in education is difficult to implement at the classroom level. This is more true nowadays when the introduction of new technology is often presented in combination with the desire to make it instrumental for other changes (like developing more teaching of problem-solving and higher-order skills and a more studentcentered orientation in education). The combined objectives imply that teachers have to change in several ways. They will need to use new materials (computers and courseware), to master new instructional methods (more individualized student activities and less whole class teaching), and to adopt new beliefs (namely, that such changes are useful). All this requires abundant time for teacher training. And to contain the size of time investments (in the sense of using curriculum materials that are well-matched to the didactical approaches of the teachers), the development of new curricula, lesson materials, and high quality software will be required. The Austrian paper captures the gist of the teacher development problem nicely with this thought: student learners today have to learn more than their teachers learned during their teacher training programs. The type of teacher training needed depends on the purpose of computer use in the schools. For using the computer as object, a teacher needs training courses that focus on the new curriculum domain. Most of the training activities during the 1980s were of the inservice type, but gradually we have come to see that initial teacher training programs must be changed as well. The training to use the computer as a medium in the curriculum seems to be more complicated due to the rapidity of technological developments. In order to develop training programs that are realistic in terms of perceived relevance and complexity, a continuous reflection will be needed on the possible place of computers (or more general information technology) in the curriculum, the added value of the technology, the available hardware and software infrastructure, and the needs of teachers to change. Many country reports refer to the crucial role of the teacher and the importance of developing inservice training programs that fit teachers' needs. Training courses are available in every country. Often a cascade model is applied (as in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the UK) wherein some specialists begin by training a first group of teachers that in turn is expected to train other groups of teachers. But while teacher training colleges are often expected to pay more attention to the use of computers in schools.

CURRICULAR ASPECTS OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

25

several countries complain that teacher trainers almost never use the computer as a medium during their own lessons. The report of Greece comments that during the teacher training program too little attention is given to implementation problems and to the integration of computers in and across existing subjects. The USA paper, too, remarks that adequate training is often lacking. In a country where virtually every school has computers available for instruction, this implies that teachers and students are given computing resources but not the instruction they would need to use them. On a more positive note, the Latvian paper states that the increasing attention given to informatics during university-level teacher training has been a stimulating factor for the entire process of integrating computers into Latvia's education system. In French-speaking Belgium, communication among school teachers has been increased thanks to electronic mail, an experience which stands as an important indication of what might be expected when electronic networks become common in schools and inservice training activities. Teacher inservice training and other support activities are undertaken in various ways. Next to the 'traditional course' approach, some countries (for example, Latvia and the Netherlands) have developed television programs to promote the use of computers as an object in schools. In the UK, the Scottish Council for Educational Technology is providing teachers with tools suitable for classroom use along with explanations about how to use them. The country reports also repeatedly mentioned the support teaching staffs receive via the computer coordinators in the individual schools or via regional and local support centers. To summarize, one may infer from the country reports that the training of teachers for computer use as an object of study is reasonably well-established, but much is left to be desired with respect to training the teachers of existing subjects to use information technology as a medium. Besides, it is an ongoing problem to attune these training courses to the rapid changes that are made in the hardware and software infrastructure and the pedagogical possibilities that follow from them. Future Directions of Computers in Education Many countries—France, Slovenia, Latvia, Belgium, Ireland, and Korea among them—have high expectations for the future of computers in education due in large part to the potential of the newer technologies such as multimedia applications and computer networks. Innovations like these are likely to have major impacts on the nature of computer-related curricula. They may, for example, further students' opportunities to participate in collaborative problem-solving, active learning, and 'real-world' learning. According to the

26

TJEERD PLOMP, NIENKE NIEVEEN, AND HANS PELGRUM

country report from Spain, multi-media and the increased quality of software may even change the current situation in which general purpose software is more commonly used in schools than specifically-designed educational applications. The question at this moment is how realistic such expectations are. One decade of research on the introduction of computers in education has shown us that, despite the high hopes at the beginning of the 1980s for the computer's potential to bring improvements and fundamental changes in education, actual changes in the daily practices of schools develop very slowly or not at all. Although the capacities for communication and information technologies have developed considerably, the questions with regard to solving educational needs, increasing perceived relevance, and assuring the practicality of computer use for educational practice at large remain substantially the same and insufficiently resolved.

References Brummelhuis, A.C.A. ten. (1995J. Models of educational change: The introduction of computers in Dutch secondary education. Enschede: University of Twente. FuUan, M.D., Miles, M.B., & Anderson, S.A.A. (1988). A conceptual plan for implementing the new information technology in Ontario schools. Ontario, Canada: Ministry of Education. Hawkridge, D. (1989). "Machine-mediated learning in third-world schools." Machine-Mediated Learning, 3:319-328. Ministry of Education. (1992). Enter: The future. Zoetermeer, the Netherlands: Ministry of Education. Pelgrum, W.J., Janssen Reinen, I.A.M., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Schools, teachers, students and computers: A cross-national perspective. The Hague, Netherlands: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (lEA). Plomp, Tj., & Voogt, J. (1995). "Use of computers." Pp. 171-185 in Improving science education, edited by B. J. Eraser & H.J. Walberg. Chicago: NSSE, The University of Chicago Press. Walker, D.F. (1986). "Computers and the curriculum." Pp. 22-39 in Microcomputers and education, edited by J.A. Culbertson & L.L. Cunningham. Chicago: NSSE, The University of Chicago Press.

Prof. Dr. Tjeerd Plomp is professor of education at the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology. He was the chairman of the International Steering Committee of the lEA CompEd Study and is since 1990 chair of lEA. Nienke Nieveen is a research assistant at the Department of Curriculum at the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology. Dr. Hans Pelgrum is the international coordinator of the lEA CompEd Study at the Center for Applied Research on Education of the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology. All authors are working at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.

RONALD E. ANDERSON AND VICKILUNDMARK

CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON INEQUITY IN COMPUTER EDUCATION

Our concern focusses upon these questions: To what extent do different groups of students, as defined by socioeconomic status, gender, and other social bases, face different learning opportunities related to information technology? How are these differences distributed across the countries represented in this anthology? When are these differences seen as unjust or discriminatory? What educational policies and practices exist in different countries to address these differences? What else can be done to reduce inequity in technology-based education? Although computer inequity is sometimes equated with gender inequity alone, in this review we address additional dimensions of inequity, especially socioeconomic status (SES). The first general question to ask is whether or not technology-related disadvantages have been found across (as well as within) countries among groups defined by gender or SES. Inequity is not just a matter of inequality; it is inequality that has been socially defined as ethically, morally, or legally inappropriate (Anderson, Lundmark, Harris, & Magnan, 1994). If a social system places high value on equality of educational opportunity, any evidence of significant group obstacles to such opportunity produces moral, political, and policy issues. Inequality in the educational access to technological resources is a problem only if educational opportunity is valued and if it is believed that such technology yields a significant educational advantage. An educational opportunity gap may produce a technology skill advantage that leads to differential school learning or to post-school differences in power (including the power to access occupational and informational resources). Technologyrelated disadvantages in education are especially likely among students from lower SES groups but also among racial minorities and women. A special equity challenge derives from the fact that considerable computer-related learning tends to occur in the home. Given the cost of computing technology, people expect to see a bias (an uneven distribution of technology in the home) due to unequal distributions of wealth and related social and cultural factors. However, in some contexts we find the pressures growing on educational systems to compensate for this disparity as a consequence. Within computer education, the main equity issues have concerned access, utilization, participation, and performance (cf. Anderson et al., 1994; Sutton, 27 T. Plomp et al, (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 27-48. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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RONALD E. ANDERSON AND VICKILUNDMARK

1991). Access refers to the mere availability of resources (software as well as hardware); utilization refers to the amount of time that people use computing systems as well as to the quality of activities for which they use them; participation consists of enrollment in computer courses or participation in other computer learning opportunities; and performance relates to measures of computing knowledge or skills. Unfortunately, empirical data are not generally available on all four of these dimensions for any country. The next section summarizes the cross-national comparisons that can be made given the extent of current research on computers and education.

The Existing Cross-National Data While most of the empirical studies on gender and wealth inequities in educational computing have been undertaken in the United States (Scott, Cole, & Engel, 1992; Sutton, 1991), there are some important exceptions. For example, Collis (1985) and Collis and Williams (1987) conducted studies in Canada; Chambers and Clarke (1987) investigated computer inequity patterns in Australia; and McKinnon and Nolan (1990) collected data in New Zealand. Discussion of equity issues in the context of the third world has also been pioneered recently by Hawkridge, Jaworski, and McMahon (1990). Otherwise, however, the only study to date that has examined educational equity issues in computing across several countries is the lEA Computers in Education Study, the first large-scale international study of computers in education. The equity data presented in this section were taken from the lEA study (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991; Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen & Plomp, 1993). National Wealth To begin with the larger, cross-national picture. Table 1 provides basic population and income data for the 19 countries described in this volume. As a measure of national wealth, the third column gives the countries' per capita gross national product (GNP) in USA dollar units for 1993. The dispersion of this distribution ranges from a low of 1,300 for India to a high of 24,700 for the USA, with most of the countries represented in the 10,000 to 19,000 range. The most remarkable feature of this GNP distribution is the fact that well over half of the total population of these 19 countries resides in the poorest countries and receives about 10 times LESS income than the population that resides in the wealthiest countries.

CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON INEQUITY IN COMPUTER EDUCATION

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n=4000 Abbreviations Key: SL2HS CC2HS INF2HS M-D-NW 2 SL3 CC3 INF 3 M-D-NW 3

year of first computer use Principal Hauptschule (HS) Computer Coordinator HS Informatics Teacher HS Existing Subjects Teacher HS Principal Higher Schools Computer Coordinator Higher Schools Informatics Teacher Higher Schools Existing Subjects Teacher Higher Schools

Source. Haider, Giinter (1994). Schule und Computer. Teil 1: Informationstechnische Grundbildung in Osterreich. Ergebnisse der lEA-Studie Computers in Education. Innsbruck: Studienverlag, p. 22 (Grafik 3). Figure 3. Teacher Computer Use in Austria 1966-1992.

Among teachers in higher schools, the median year for initial computer use (the year by which 50% of the relevant group had reported first use) is 197677 for information teachers (INF 3), 1985-86 for teachers of existing subjects such as mathematics, English, German, and science (M-D-NW 3), and 1990 for principals (SL 3). In contrast, the teachers of secondary general schools passed through a parallel development over a smaller time span of about 6 to 10 years. The median year of first use for computer coordinators and informatics teachers in this group (CC 2 and INF 2) was 1986-87 and about 5

THE AUSTRIAN CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

97

years later, on average, for their colleagues (M-D-NW 2) and their principals (SL 2). Computer Implementation in Vocational Schools Goals, curricula, and development. The main goal for computer use in Austria's vocational schools is to provide a user-oriented and job-related introduction to informatics and electronic data processing. For this reason, Electronic Data Processing (Elektronische Datenverarbeitung, or "EDV") was implemented as a compulsory subject in the curricula of the vocational schools-first in all higher level business schools (1971), later in all technical/engineering schools as well as all medium-level business schools (1977), and much later in higher schools for commerce and domestic science (1991). During the 1980s, computer use in vocational schools increased, both from an increase in EDV training time (in the form of doubling EDV lessons from 2 to 4 hours per week) and from greater specialization in the various training programs offered by the schools. In medium and higher level technical and vocational schools, numerical controlled CNC-machines (Computer Numerical Control) have been used within the workshop-training since 1980-81. To meet the demands of modern CAE/CIM (Computer Aided Engineering/Computer Integrated Manufacturing), the subject CAD (Computer Aided Design) was implemented, at first in all higher level technical and vocational schools. In some schools with a main emphasis in the fields of electronics and electrical or mechanical engineering, practical use of data processing techniques has been added to the subject CAD; and, at six locations, special higher schools for EDV and EDV organization have been established. In medium and higher level business schools, in addition to EDV and Applied EDV, computers have been used in the subjects data organization, computer-aided accountancy, and wordprocessing. Since 1988, the computer curriculum in business schools has focussed on the ability to solve commercial problems using standard software. Recently, computer use has also been increased in the teaching of foreign languages like English and French. In medium and higher level domestic science and tourism and catering schools, the main emphasis is on supporting certain branches with EDV (for example, by using data processing in domestic science or computer-aided pattern design in schools for fashion and clothing). In agriculture and forestry schools, EDV courses focussing on practical uses for office management,

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GUNTER HAIDER

bookkeeping, and accountancy are compulsory at the higher level and mostly optional at the medium level. In apprenticeship schools, EDV knowledge and computer use are compulsory for metal processing, electronics, graphics, and trade. Within this so-called dual education system of Berufsschulen, apprentices also gather practical computer knowledge through their training at an employer's workplace. Hardware and software equipment. All technical schools have had computer rooms since the 1970s; however, their configurations have differed according to need, available resources, and the engagement of the teachers. In 1989, each technical and commercial school received a standardized equipment set with six CAD-working-places (PC 386, 16" monitor, A3plotter, 70 MB harddisk, AutoCAD 10). In the following year, one or two projection panels were bought for didactic presentations and further EDV rooms were established so that at least 17 computer-working-places were available in each school. All machines are MS-DOS compatible and have at least an AT-standard. In 1993-94 new 486 machines replaced most of the older AT-computers. AutoCAD is one of the most frequently used software programs along with programming languages like Turbo Pascal and Turbo C. Standard software is MS-WORD and dBase IV. In addition, the schools for EDV received UNIX mini-computers with 16 terminals and LAN; the microelectronical laboratories received computers with special I/O and lEEEBus-Cards; and schools for graphic design acquired Apple Macintosh computers. Medium and higher level business schools (Handelsakademien and Handelsschulen), about 100 in all, contained about 2,500 computers and printers in 1991, valued altogether at approximately 75 m. Schilling (7 million U.S. dollars). For every 12 classes per school, a room with 15 computer-working-places is available. Normally the hardware consisted of AT-computers with harddisks and VGA-monitors, and the standard software programs were MS-WORD, dBase IV, and SuperCalc. New 486-computers were bought by the ministry in 1993 and 1994 so that more than 50% of the machines are now equipped at least with an 386-processor. Computer-aided accountancy used IRIS, a product of an Austrian software company. Foreign language lessons used CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) packages for English and French. Tourism and catering schools each have at least 15 computer-workingplaces available, for a total of about 1,200 in the whole school type. Their

THE AUSTRIAN CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

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technical standard corresponds to the standard of the business schools. Besides the standard software (MS-Word, Framework), branch-specific packages such as programs for calculation, hotel-administration, or fashionpattern design are in use. For agriculture and forestry schools, the standard includes at least 10 machines for each school and branch-specific software developed with support from the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry. About 1,000 computers are available at the approximately 200 vocational schools for apprentices, mainly in the commercial, electrotechnical, and metal-processing branches. Furthermore, a multitude of computer-controlled machines are in use. The use of software is oriented to operational practice. Computer training of teachers in BMS/BHS. The training of teachers for computer education mainly takes place in the regional Pedagogical Institutes. Within their inservice training programs, the Institutes offer a large number of seminars and information-events as well as special courses for each of the compulsory subjects taught in the higher vocational schools (such as computer-aided accountancy or wordprocessing). Except at the Technical University and the University of Vienna, university training programs for regular teachers hardly take any account of the possibilities for computer use in the classroom. However, a concept to define university training in computer use for all teachers is under discussion. For working teachers, an EDV-working group exists at the regional level in each of the 9 provinces for each school type, with the promotion of the provincial school authorities. These working groups are an important base for the exchange of experiences and for the handling of subject-related didactical problems. They also participate in the development of lesson materials. Moreover, in some provinces, teacher training centers (IST-Centres) have been established with the support of industry and commerce. Goals and Development in Secondary General Schools Eleven principles of educational politics controlled decisions about computer literacy and information-technical education in the Hauptschule and AHS: 1. Computers are universal tools; knowledge about them is relevant for instruction and has to be introduced into the lessons in a suitable way. 2. Information-technical education is an integral part of general education.

100

3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

GUNTER HAIDER

Each teacher should be able to use the computer in lessons as they would use other pieces of support equipment such as audio visuals. Each pupil has to get information-technical basic education (Informationstechnische Grundbildung or "ITG", computer literacy). Connected to the implementation of information-technical education is the development of new ways of thinking and behaving, especially the ability to cope by means of abstract thought processes with the increasing quantity of information. Communication and teamwork, creativity, and innovative thinking are to be supported intensively as basic abilities for the solving of problems. The chances, possibilities, and global consequences of the new technologies have to be taught. Extended and job-related information-technical education should be expanded continuously.

The structural realization of these general goals took three different forms, of which the first two are especially important for compulsory general schools: A. Information-technical basic education (computer literacy) for all pupils; B. Extended information-technical education in the form of a separate subject called "informatics"; and C. Job-related information-technical education. Curricular steps. Following this general educational paradigm, central decisions by the Parliament and the Ministry of Education drove the whole development of computer education in general secondary schools. The decisions they made fulfill demands set out by the CERI (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Paris) in the field of computer literacy and also parallel the trend of development reported for other countries by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The first aims of the information-technical education concept were realized in the mid-1980s, beginning with the last compulsory school year (9th grade). The optional subject "informatics" was introduced into grade 9 (the 5th class) of the AHS in 1985, accompanied by extensive phase of equipping all 240 national schools and most private schools with hardware and software. In 1986, the optional subject "informatics" was introduced in pre-vocational schools. Then, in 1988, "informatics" was made a compulsory rather than optional subject in the 9th grade (5th class) of the AHS.

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By the end of the 1980s, two main positions could be identified in the discussions of this general ITG-concept for the grade 9 age group. Some believed ITG should be taught within a separate, compulsory "informatics" course that emphasized algorithms and the construction of programs. Others beheved ITG should be integrated within the other existing subjects under guidelines set out by a set of "principles of instruction". Thus, the priority would be learning "informatics" in an applications-oriented sense related to an existing subject with the use of ready-made apphcation software. The new curriculum instituted in 1989 in Hauptschule and in 1990 in AHS allowed a compromise by which both arguments got the chance to be proved in practice. Information-technical education for all secondary general schools was thus established. With primary emphasis on the curriculum of the 7th and 8th grades, a new, twelfth general principle of instruction was constructed. "Preparation for the usage of new technologies, especially the informationand communication technologies with changing main emphasis, depending on the relevant grade" shall act from the beginning against the "splitting up" of computer knowledge. This principle put the teachers under the obligation of coordinating interdisciplinary activities for using computers to thereby gain a more complete impact of education. Table 2 summarizes the resulting concept of computer literacy for Austria's secondary general schools. Realizing the goal to "not split up" computer knowledge took the form of integrating computer literacy in all subjects within a one-week introduction phase in the 7th grade (third class) and a one-week project in the 8th grade (fourth class). Both weeks should be project-oriented and interdisciplinary in that all lessons of all subjects (except religion) should be integrated and at least 12 hours of practical work with the computers are planned. The introductory week has to take place before the 7th week of school. In addition, an intensified integration of the ITG into the four subjects supporting computer use, mathematics, German, English, and technical drawing ("Tragerfacher"), was to be achieved by including computer literacy contents in the syllabus, educational aims, and didactical principles of these subjects. The goal is to incorporate 15 to 20 hours of computer use per school year for each "Tragerfach". The principle of "Tragerfach" and the further integration of computer use into all other subjects are the main concepts of the Federal Ministry of Education for secondary general schools.

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Table 2. Curriculum for Computer Literacy in Austrian Secondary Schools, 1992 1

Grade 7 (3rd class) | Grade 8 (4th class) Assumption: computer literacy as an educational principle and didactic fundamental for all subjects

Objectives: preparation for the application of new technologies; fundamental and applicationoriented discussion of mformation and communication technologies Introductory Week (1 week) Project Week/Phase (1 week) project-oriented introductory week extended project-oriented week including all regular subjects | including all regular subjects Computer literacy integrated into four Trager^cher (supporting subjects) | DEUTSCH/ TECHNICAL 1 GERMAN ENGLISH MATHEMATICS DRAWING understanding the mode of operation of computers

CALL: application of user-friendly software for computer assisted language learning

understanding the computer, especially algorithms, formalizing problems

appUcation of new technologies and problem solving techniques

using computers for saving information

working with texts construction of texts manipulation of texts

use of standard applications, e.g. spreadsheets

development in the conception of space

wordprocessing desktop publishing optional subject "informatics" free choice of subjects (2 hours a week)

use of software for design and construction (CAD) 1 optional subject "informatics" free choice of subjects (2 hours a week) |

Adding the optional subject "introduction to informatics" (2 hours per week) into the lesson table for the 7th and 8th grade should open the way for all pupils to extend their computer literacy on a voluntary basis. The newlyregulated content of the curriculum allows an exemplified selection from the topics of algorithmic procedures for problem solving and programming, wordprocessing, data processing, spreadsheets, graphics and design, process control, applications, and consequences of information technologies (for example, the consequences to privacy). These regulations came into force in 1989-90 in Hauptschule and in 199091 in AHS. New curricular rules for the grade 9 pre-vocational school also took effect in 1989-90. They extended applied computer education via integration in compulsory seminars (3 hours a week), offered information as an optional subject (1-2 hours), and introduced an interdisciplinary projectweek into the curriculum of the pre-vocational year analogous to the projectweek established for students in Hauptschule. (The status of these efforts are

THE AUSTRIAN CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

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discussed below under the section on "Curriculum and Reality" in compulsory schools.) Teacher inservice and preservice training. The transfer of the new curriculum content required an extended inservice teacher training for nearly all of the 40,000 teachers at Austria's secondary general schools. Only since 1985 has "informatics" been offered as a compulsory subject at the Pedagogical Academies (but for just one hour a week for one semester) and, with additional study, teachers for Hauptschulen could formally qualify to teach "informatics". Therefore, only a very low number of teachers from the Hauptschule had received sufficient qualification in computer use during their training time at the Pedagogical Academies. AHS teachers, too, who are trained at the university, had previously had no possibility for a formal qualification in informatics (except at the Viennese university where an experimental course was available). Remarkably, the contents of the Austrian curricula for pupils in secondary schools had exceeded by some distance the requirements for the training of their teachers. Then, beginning in 1985, all working teachers got the opportunity to receive inservice training from the Pedagogical Institutes and from some voluntary seminars made available by private organizations. With certain course work, it is possible to acquire formal qualifications from the Pedagogical Institutes for teaching "informatics" in Hauptschule or in AHS. The new courses offered by the regional Pedagogical Institutes contained approximately 170 to 290 lessons (varying across the provinces) from all relevant parts of computer literacy. Data from Austria's 1992 lEA Computers in Education study^ indicated that about 1,100 teachers in Hauptschule had passed the "informatics" quahfying examinations by 1990, 2,100 had passed it by 1992, and about 640 teachers were still in training to take the examinations. In 1992, the Ministry of Education shortened the courses offered, explaining that the first phase of teacher training for informatics was finished and that enough informatics teachers (on average, 2 per school) were already available for Hauptschulen. For all other Hauptschule teachers without formal computer training, the Pedagogical Institutes offered voluntary basic and subject-specific courses. Beside the acquisition of a basic knowledge, this training focusses on the exemplified description of computer use in "Tragerfachern" (the four subjects with computer integrated instruction). In addition, to expand their knowledge about computers, some Hauptschule teachers attended private seminars given Contact the Austrian lEA Center for information about available reports and publications from this study. A mailing address is given in footnote 2.

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by organizations for adult training (from Chambers of Trade and Commerce or adult education centers). About 60% of all teachers of secondary schools took the opportunity to attend one or more of the courses described above. Hardware and software equipment. Austrian secondary schools have MSDOS-compatible computers as standard equipment. The amount of equipment in a school depends upon the size and financial power of its supporting institution. Hauptschule schools, supported by communities and provinces, are usually equipped with about 9 PCs while AHS schools, supported by the Federal Ministry, usually have about 23 PCs. Of these computers in the schools, 90% had an XT (8088) or an AT (80286) processor in 1992. During 1993, additional computers (mainly 386s and 486s) were bought for AHS schools, but the majority of the computers are still AT-machines. The equipment offensive of the Federal Ministry for AHS schools began in the mid-1980s with the introduction of "informatics" as a compulsory subject. For Hauptschule, the larger part of the computer inventory was acquired at the end of the 1980s when new curricular regulations forced the school supporters to buy hardware. An overview of the hardware situation in Austrian schools is given in Table 3. In the mid-1980s, the Federal Ministry of Education and the Arts put a software package at each school's disposal that contained a wordprocessing program (Textmaker), an integrated package (Open Access or Enable, later also MS Works), a spreadsheet program (SuperCalc), and some CADprograms (PC-Design, CAD-2D). These programs represented the software standard, quality, and user-friendliness of the programs available in the middle 1980s, but for a long time they were also the only software which could be used legally by the schools. With too little money in school budgets for purchasing software, teachers would have to use pirated copies if they wanted to show more modern software to the students.

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Table 3. Hardware Equipment in the Austrian Schools, 1992 Equipment Types

HS

AHS

HTL

HAK

HLWB

HLLW

Mean number of students (per school)

201

518

522

321

249

246

Computers AT 80286 XT 8088 386/486 Other Total Mean number per school

58% 31% 8% 3% 100% 9

72% 20% 5% 4% 100% 23

46% 26% 20% 8% 100% 63

40% 14% 46% 0% 100% 32

29% 13% 51% 7% 100% 26

85% 2% 3% 10% 100% 14

Printers Matrix Laser Other Total Mean number per school

97% 3% 0% 100% 6

83% 16% 1% 100% 11

92% 5% 3% 100% 32

98% 1% 1% 100% 31

99% 1% 0% 100% 22

96% 0% 4% 100% 5

Harddisks Percent in computers Percent through network Total Mean number per school

67% 7% 74% 6

23% 40% 63% 5

65% 22% 87% 55

99% 1% 100% 32

91% 0% 91% 23

89% 0% 89% 12

Abbreviations Key: HS AHS HTL HAK HLWB HLLW

Hauptschule (secondary general schools) AUgemeinbildende Hohere Schule (higher secondary schools) Hohere Technische oder gewerbliche Lehranstalt (BHS technical branch) Handelsakademie (BHS trade and business schools) Hohere Lehranstalt fiir Wirtschaftliche Berufe (BHS domestic science and commerce schools) Hohere Lehranstalt fiir Land- und Forstwirtschaft (higher forestry and agriculture schools)

Source: Austrian lEA Computers in Education Study, 1992.

Curriculum and Reality Compulsory Schools Descriptive data from Austria's 1992 Computers in Education study show a large discrepancy between the curriculum prescribed by the central Austrian

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GUNTER HAIDER

school authorities and the instruction actually implemented in the classrooms. Certainly, as Figure 4 demonstrates, the frequency with which computers get used in the schools differs substantially from the frequency implied by curricular regulations. Most problems relate to the integrated application of computers in project weeks and in the four subjects supporting computer use, or "Tragerfacher". 100% weeks with computer use

80 0/J 60 yJ 40%

20 vl

I

0% I

II

II II

18 If 34 II 46 II 48 GZ M D E GW PC BU

PROJECT WEEK

TRAGERFACHER! Abbreviations Key: GZ Technical drawing M Mathematics D Deutsch/German

E GW PC

EngUsh Geography Physics/chemistry

BU

Biology

Source: Haider, Giinter (1994): As reported by 3428 teachers of existing subjects for grade 8. Teil 1: Informationstechnische Grundbildung in Osterreich. Ergebnisse der lEA-Studie Computers in Education. Innsbruck: Studienverlag. Figure 4. Subject-Integrated Use of Computers in Grade 8 of Austria's Secondary General Schools, 1991-1992.

Although project-weeks are obhgatory for all teachers, only 11% of them cooperated in providing them to students during the subject-overlapping periods designated for 1991-92. The main reasons for teachers' low involvement in project-weeks are lack of motivation, the absence of computer competence among a great number of teachers, the deficit of didactically appropriate software, a widespread antipathy against project-oriented lessons.

THE AUSTRIAN CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

107

and antipathy against cooperation"^ between subject areas among Austrian teachers. Only partial success has been obtained by the idea of integrating of computer use into the four "Tragerfacher". While a majority of teachers used computers in mathematics (66%) and geometric construction (82%), the practice in German and English classrooms falls below expectations. Only half the pupils in these subjects caught sight of a computer. Computer applications in science subjects (geography, physics/chemistry, and biology in Figure 4) took place in the lessons of only a third of Austria's science teachers. To use computers in all subjects, which was the underlying main goal of the educational policy for subject-integration, is not within view for the near future. According to data from the Computers in Education study, the chances that exist to use computer-assisted instruction are seldom taken advantage of by teachers for reasons that sound familiar: low computer competence and a lack of interest among teachers as well as missing educational software. No particular problems could be detected in informatics, the voluntary subject which is attended by more than a third of the pupils in grade 7 and 8 for two hours per week. But that is not to mention that there are general difficulties with some out-of-date hardware and a lack of didactically adequate programs for this age group. Likewise, the unbalanced ratio of 60% boys to 40% girls within voluntary informatics courses is disquieting from the viewpoint of emancipatory educational policy. Higher Schools Informatics has no great importance in general higher schools. After taking the two-hour compulsory subject "informatics" in grade 9, only 13% of the AHS pupils in grades 10 to 12 (60% of them male) attend a voluntary computer subject. With three additional years of informatics, pupils have the opportunity to take informatics for the final "Matura" examinations. The higher technical and business schools traditionally offer more compulsory and more applied informatics course time as a result of their Cooperation between teachers of different subjects requires a lot of additional preparation work compared to the traditional frontal instruction to a one-subject class with "closed classroom doors". It also becomes necessary to make one's own instructional practice transparent and "open" to accomplish cooperation with other colleagues. Austrian teachers in the majority do not like these marginal conditions. So only a minority of them (not more than 10 to 15% in secondary general schools) are repeatedly involved in such cooperative projects.

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Stronger ties to the development of the economy. Subjects and lessons are oriented to specific commercial or technical branches of the economy, and the teachers often have practical economic experience as well. Consequently, computer use in vocational schools does not suffer from as much neglect as it does in the secondary general schools. Common to the higher schools in 1992 was the large degree of out-of-date hardware they had. About half of it has been replaced in 1993 by 386 and 486 machines. The software in higher schools is often several years behind the actual market development.

Current Trends and Problems The generation of concepts for computer literacy education in Austria depends heavily on the school-political climate between the Social Democrats (who have provided the Minister of Education and the Arts since 1970) and the conservative Volkspartei, the second largest political party in Austria. Ministerial departments are allotted and assigned in the usual Austrian, partypolitical way: they are divided between the two parties. Accordingly, an existing disparity of views can be the result and may obstruct development down to the local levels of schools and school authorities. As a compromise, a common general concept for computer literacy in compulsory schools was determined in the middle 1980s, that borrowed all its main points from the German model. This lead directly to the curriculum laws of 1989-90 that introduced computer literacy in Hauptschulen and general higher schools. Policy Prospects Curricula are direct laws from the Minister of Education and, because of an absence of a new direction for further development, no new concepts about general computer use in the schools have been published since the late 1980s. The reasons are, on the one hand, located in the differing opinions of the responsible departments in the ministry about computer use in schools, and, on the other hand, in the fact that the Minister of Education concentrates more often on new themes like school-autonomy, the integration of handicapped children into normal schools, and the schooling of the children of migrants. Another decisive factor in times of budget cutting is cost. New computers, extensive preservice and inservice training for teachers, and the development of educational software are all costly projects.

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Over the last three or four years, the ministerial departments for the different school-types have each developed their own ideas for "computer literacy". But these ideas have not explicitly been written down yet, so they exist in the minds of the ministerial officials or executives rather than as part of an open discussion. Activities to promote computer use in the elementary schools are not worth mentioning because the important executives of the elementary school levels are skeptical or antipathetic to all kinds of computer use with children from 6 to 10 years of age. Therefore, a general concept for the future introduction of computers in Volksschulen does not exist. In special schools, new and remarkable developments are taking place. A new curriculum has been set in force in 1994 which provides the use of computers for assisted learning and as a prosthetical tool. The responsible persons in the ministerial department for Hauptschule and upper cycle AHS schools pull their whole weight firstly on the further integration of computer application into "Tragerfacher" (maths, German, English, technical drawing) and secondly on the integration of computers into all subjects (as an educational principle). At this time, no plans are underway for new special programs for teacher training. Furthermore, supplying the schools with educational software will be left in the care of the "market", which, as we know, did not produce enough school-adequate software during the last 10 years. Teachers In 1994, five years after establishing the curricular principle of integrating computers in all the subjects of general schools (Hauptschule), the knowledge necessary for the teachers to do so is still not fully included in the curriculum of teacher training at the Pedagogical Academies. Also today, ten years after the introduction of informatics into the general higher schools (AHS-O), no formal teacher preservice training in informatics is available. Not even a concrete plan to provide it in the future exists. Without powerful initiatives in preservice and inservice training and without new and higher quality software, the chance for a better and more intensively integrated use of computers in the schools is small. Teachers who do not use computers as prescribed by regulations take very little risk. (The Computers in Education study showed that 75% of this problematic group is female.) The regional school authorities who are responsible for the supervision of teachers and schools do not fulfill their task

no

GUNTER HAIDER

practically or are not able to supervise the teachers because of their extensive administrative responsibilities or their lack of computer knowledge. If a teacher would not meet the official regulations about computer use in English, for example-even for many years, the chances for detection and change are absolutely minimal. There is no evidence that any teacher of the permanent staff in Austrian schools has been detected or issued any "friendly warning" because of not following the curricular rules for computer use. (The last time any systematic and politically independent evaluation of school innovations and educational programs took place was during the comprehensive school experiments of the 1970s.) Inservice training is left to the choice of the teachers. As a consequence of this fact, one third of all teachers in general schools never attended a computer course even though it is compulsory for all teachers to use computers in their lessons. Parents The parents of Austrian pupils are on the whole very interested in an early and intensive use of computers in the schools. Support and reinforcement for these opinions come mainly from their practical professional and economic experiences, which teachers normally lack. Most of the parents support children who are interested in computers, and nearly half of the pupils have their own computers at home. For example, according to 53% of the 18-yearold students use their own computers, on the average, more than 5 hours a week and report that more than 50% of their computer knowledge actually came from outside of the school. The Future The Austrian experience during the last decade has shown that hope for new, decisive impulses in the evolution of informatics and computer literacy in state schools is attached mainly to initiatives of the federal authorities. This is also a consequence of the centralized system. Perhaps after mastering more problems that appear more urgent (like the integration of handicapped pupils and the schooling of migrant children), a new orientation to educationaltechnology policy will arrive. Because of the current economic situation and the high proportion of fixed costs for permanent staff in the educational budget (more than 90%), the financial margins for extensive initiatives in the field of computer use seem to be very small.

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References Clement, W, (1988). Austria: Description of the education system. In Postlethwaite (Ed.), The encyclopedia of comparative and national systems of education. Oxford: Pergamon. Haider, G. (1994). Schule und Computer. Informationstechnische Grundbildung in Osterreich. Ergebnisse der lEA-Studie Computers in Education, Teil 1: Hauptschulen und AHSUnterstufen. Band 1 der Reihe "Beitrage zur Vergleichenden Schulforschung". Innsbruck: Osterreichischer Studienveriag. Lehner & Reiter (Eds.). (1990). EDV/Informatik im Osterreichischen Bildungswesen. Vienna: Federal Ministry of Education and the Arts. Plank, H. (Ed.). (1991). Education in Austria: A concise presentation. Vienna: Federal Ministry of Education and the Arts. Plank, H. (Ed.) (1988). Education at a glance: Basic data of first, second, and third level education in Austria. Vienna: Federal Ministry of Education and the Arts. Reiter, A., & Rieder, A. (1990). Didaktik der Informatik: Informations- und kommunikationstechnische grundbildung. Vienna: Osterreichischer Bundesverlag (OBV). Wetzel, G., & Haider, G. (1991). COMPED national questionnaire Austria. Salzburg: University of Salzburg. Austrian lEA Research Center.

Gunter Haider, Austrian lEA Center, University of Salzburg, A-5020 Salzburg, Akademiestrasse 26/2, Austria.

ELISE BOXUS, DIEUDONNE LECLERCQ, AND CHARLES DUCHATEAU

POLICIES AND PRACTICE IN THE BELGIUM FRENCH COMMUNITY WITH RESPECT TO COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION^

The education authorities in the Belgium French Community have been cautious to avoid waste and wary of prematurely rushing the diffusion of the new information technologies. However, many initiatives have been taken at local levels with recommendations and support from centralized levels. Three types of organizing authorities oversee the educational system of the French Community. The structure of the system and the more general developments in the educational uses of computers are described first. Policy and practices under the specific organizing authorities are then reviewed in turn. All discussion refers only to the period up until 1994.

Created in 1830, Belgium became a federal state in 1990. It is divided simultaneously into three regions and three communities. The three regions, the Flemish, Walloon, and Brussels, are geographically separable and have economical powers. The Flemish part of the country borders the Netherlands; the Walloon region borders France; and Brussels, near to the Walloon region but within the Flemish region, is an officially bilingual city. Cultural powers, including the control of education, belong to the three communities of Belgium. They correspond to the three different language-speaking groups of the country: the Dutch-speaking people (located primarily in the Remish region), a group of German-speaking people (mostly located in a small area near the German border), and the French-speaking people (who live primarily in the Walloon region). The educational system of the latter, French-speaking community is the topic of this article.

The Educational System The Belgium French Community has two ministers of education, one for the elementary and secondary school levels and another for post-secondary ^

This report was prepared in 1994. Its realisation owes thanks to the participation of the Inspectors Cambier, Denis, Desir, Hannon, Huberty Mathot, Mossiat, Simon, and Verlove. 113

T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 113-138. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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education including the universities. Instruction is compulsory until 18 years of age, whereas school is not~that is, parents can claim that they teach their own children at home, but they have to be able to prove that they do. The law guarantees to parents the liberty of choice between schools, and it guarantees the right of organizing education to associations which can be financially supported by public money provided they fulfill a series of very strict conditions. The Organizing Authorities Actually, three types of organizing authorities exist in the educational system; and each to some degree operates at a network level. For example, the Central Public Authority acts as a network for the entire Belgium French Community. Local public authorities, such as provinces, cities, towns, and villages, have also grouped into a network named the Permanent Centre for Official Neutral Subsidiated Education and referred to as CPEONS. The free school boards, mainly Catholic and constituted by private associations of individuals, are essentially formed on the basis of philosophical and religious considerations. And the Catholic schools authorities as well have common institutions (National Secretariat of Catholic Schools, 1989) in addition to other specific network groups. All three of these organizing authorities, central, local, and free, receive funding from the Community, enough to pay 100% of the expenditures for teachers and various other ratios for the costs related to school buildings according to the nature of the organizing authority. School Levels The four school levels which exist currently are named at the top of the system chart in Figure 1. As the chart shows, compulsory education comprises the primary and secondary levels while the superior level refers to postsecondary education. Primary level together with preschool, for children from 3 to 5, may be referred to as fundamental education. Some schools at the fundamental level contain a cycle encompassing about 60 children from 5 to 8 years of age with 3 teachers assigned to the group, 2 primary school teachers and one kindergarten teacher. This arrangement allows children to pass coolly from one school level to the other.

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COMPULSORY

3

4

PRESCHOOL

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

IIIM^^^

12

13

14

15

16

17

SECONDARY

DEGREE

DEGREE

DEGREE

1

2

3

CYCLE of CYCLE of CYCLE of observation orientation determination

TRANSITIONAL general track TRANSITIONAL technical track QUALIFICATION technical track PROFESSIONAL track

18

19

20

21

22

23

SUmi«C«t

LONG (incl. universities)

SHORT

FUNDAM£^frAL

Figure 1. The Education System in the Belgium French Community.

Primary education contains three 2-year cycles (labeled Degrees 1, 2, and 3 in the diagram), and each teacher typically has 20 to 30 pupils in his or her class. But certain courses like physical education and religion are given by specialized teachers. The secondary level, too, consists of three 2-year cycles with each successive cycle having a different focus. Between the ages of 12 and 17 or 18, students in secondary schools move through 2-year periods of observation, orientation, and determination, respectively. Since 1994, it has no longer been possible to repeat a first year of any cycle; passing to the second year is automatic. The superior level of education includes university (2 years undergraduate and 2 or 3 years post-graduate) and non-university higher education, often called Graduats (without an "e"), of the short type and the long type. The difference between the short and long types is the amount of time they take, 2 to 3 years in the first case, 4 to 5 years in the last. The Belgium French Community has 9 universities, three of which have the full range of faculties, the Free University of Brussels, the Catholic University of Louvain-LaNeuve, and the Community University of Liege. Table 1 lists the total number of students in each level of the system and displays the percentage breakdown of the pupils for each organizing authority.

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Table 1. Number of Students at Each School Level in 1992 and Percent Distribution by Organizing Authority Percent by Organizing Authorit)! School Level

Number of Students

French Community

Local Authorities

Free (Catholic)

Preschool

162,645

9.1

50.3

40.6

Primary

314,027

11.7

43.3

45.0

Secondary

347,460

26.8

18.5

54.7

59,167 55,982

28.4 19.2

30.4

71.6 50.4

939,281

18.4

31.8

49.8

Superior University Non-university Total

Note: Of the university students in free schools, about 69% are Catholic and 31% are "free examinists". Source: Ministry of Education (1993), Statistics for 1992. Ministry of Education, Research and Training, Brussels.

Secondary Tracks Figure 1 devotes four lines to identifying some of the track alternatives at the secondary school level. In fact, five tracks exist and are organized in parallel. But neither the apprenticeship track, where pupils spend half of their time in school and half in a work setting nor the artistic track, are represented in the figure. The transitional general track is devoted to readying students for higher education. The technical track takes two forms. Like the general track, the transitional technical track also has possibilities that allow students to continue in higher education. The qualification technical track prepares students to general domains of competencies (in mechanical or electrical domains, for instance) and various levels of qualification. Finally, the professional track, the most vocational, prepares students to specific jobs, examples of which might be brick layers, carpenters, or drill machine operators.

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Teachers Initial Training Preschool and elementary school teachers must acquire 3 years of training in teachers colleges called Higher Pedagogic Training Institutes (previously referred to as Ecoles Normales). Teachers for the 3 first years of the secondary level are trained in regendats, another section of the Higher Pedagogic Training Institutes. This training, also of 3 years' length, may either be oriented toward French-history-civics or modern foreign languages or science-mathematics or physical education. Teachers for the last 3 years of secondary level are trained at university in a structure called "aggregation for the higher secondary school level." Heretofore, that training has lasted half a year, but a project is in process to transform it into a full year. Currently, each pupil has several different teachers over the course of his or her time in secondary education, usually from 6 to 12. In part, this is because numerous specialty teachers teach in more than one secondary school. For example, a chemistry teacher could be teaching chemistry in two or three secondary schools. But a trend has been emerging to request more flexibility from teachers in the form of asking them to be able to teach other contents connected to their specialties. Such a plan should stabilize a person in a single school. In other words, a chemist could teach physics and biology in the same school as he or she teaches chemistry. Inspectors' Roles Inspectors in the educational system have two distinct roles, an administrative one and a pedagogical one. The former consists in checking the conformity to regulations among subsidiated institutions. The pedagogical role has two separate aspects. Its evaluative aspect involves making reports on the teaching capacities of new professors and recommending dismissals if necessary. The second aspect, as an impetus or impulse to improvement, is represented by the inspectors' efforts to invent programs, to revisit them, to promote new pedagogic ideas, and to conceive the continuous training of teachers.^

Non-Belgium-French Community schools have to submit proofs (such as diaries or notebooks) that they have satisfied the Community's requirements to a confirmation body (the Homologation Commission).

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General Developments in the Educational Use of the New Information Technologies The education authorities in the Belgium French Community have always been open to using new information technologies (IT) in the schools but have refused to rush their diffusion. Large-scale plans that could have led to important waste through inadequate and premature use of the data processing tools have been avoided. Nevertheless, the gathering and analysis of information about the educational possibilities for IT have been insured in various ways. Pilot projects were carried out concerning equipment, teachers' training, and pedagogical methods. Data has been collected on the didactic innovations permanently carried out by university departments, especially by the network named "Computers Serving Education" (Ordinateur au Service de TEducation or O.S.E.) that links the five Community universities which have an educational research department. Members of ministerial and inspection departments have regularly attended meetings organized by the European Union on the subject of educational IT, and they have visited different EU countries to assess the relevancy of new pedagogical uses. By means of the EURYCLEE network, information has been regularly exchanged among educators about IT and its applications. Finally, each organizing authority has also installed structures to provide IT support. Educational Research on IT in the Schools In the decade of the 1980s, IT use in the schools was an important theme of funded research, commanding about 21% of the research budget.^ Projects proposed by universities or by other bodies with a legal personality are submitted to the responsible ministers for education; and inspectors, in consultation with the General Director, form a council that suggests which of the proposed projects should be funded. The final decision issued by the ministers includes specifications of the amount of the grant that will be given to the selected project and the length of time its research will encompass. A great number of the researches concerning educational IT use included either a diffusion aspect or a development aspect and dealt with computer technology or the elaboration of a tool or even the didactic of a subject. Of A number of different agencies fund the education researches carried out in the Belgium French Community. The most common sources are the Fund for Collective Fundamental Scientific Research of Ministerial Initiative, the General Directorate of the Organisation of Studies, the General Directorate of Primary Education, and the Education and Scientific Research Service.

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the 234 researches which allowed themselves to be coded in this regard, 36% showed these characteristics. The Introduction of Computers in School Goals. The education authorities in the Belgium French Conmiunity enumerated a set of objectives for introducing computers into the schools. Their four major goals were to make children aware of the uses for computers by including the computer culture within the school-conveyed culture; to promote computers as teaching and learning tools and a professional training tool; to introduce computers in the financial, material, and teaching management of the schools; and to enable teachers to face all of these tasks— in other words, to train them, especially through permanent training. Essentially, permanent training is defined or seen as trying to make teachers capable of using existing coursewares and of modifying the variables of such coursewares to adapt them to local circumstances. Introducing a new subject in the curricula is relatively easy to do. However, including computers in the daily teaching so that they can really serve the educational methods chosen by a teacher leads to enormous problems. Attitude problems and problems of technological mastery arise as well as problems with the elaboration of personalized teaching programs. Efforts and difficulties. In secondary education, teachers started using domestic microcomputers as a teaching aid in their classrooms as early as 1980, and some general education secondary schools introduced a computer course as a "cultural option" in the big classes. In the basic training of teachers, a course in media and data processing was introduced in 1985. But as yet, the switch to computer-aided teaching is far from complete. For one thing, it calls for much heavier equipment than what is presently in use. A single microcomputer in any school is quickly saturated even when its potential for massive use is not developed. For another thing, the number of coursewares, most of which are foreign and translated, is insufficient. Projects to create coursewares locally in languages, geography, sciences, and other subjects do not suscitate much enthusiasm among potential publishers who see their marketing prospects as hazardous. Current uses. One way to describe the current educational uses of the new information technologies is in terms of the degree to which they have been

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adopted in the schools. The 1989 lEA Computers in Education Study'* revealed a series of interesting features in the Belgium French Community schools (Deltour, 1990; Henry & Deltour). In technical and professional secondary education, computers had been widely introduced as a component of the professional training (for data processing, word processing, management, digital techniques, and so on). But in spite of the important efforts that had been made, the uses of computers in teaching overall remained quite scarce. While about 50% of the elementary and more than 90% of the secondary schools reported some instructional use of computers (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991, p. 18), in only 1/3 of the secondary schools did several teachers say that they used them "a few times a year" and "less than 10% of [the] pupils in primary schools" had used them for learning (Henry & Deltour). Another way to describe the current use of computers is in terms of the different roles they are playing in the schools. In the drills used to instill a thorough grasp of essential notions or to support pupils who might otherwise fail, microcomputers act as a teacher. They also act as a teacher when they allow the simulation of difficult experiments. Varying parameters in a model and studying the consequences allows students to enact their own teaching. Computers are used as a tool to access data banks, to acquire and process data, and to assist technical training. In commercial schools, they are used for office applications such as word processing and spreadsheet work. In the technical and industrial courses, they serve as aids for industrial drawing or "numerical tool boxes" and assist in the automatic generation of programs. Probably the noblest use of the computer is as a tutee, allowing students to build knowledge and to create by drawing, piloting robots, or making music. Here the computer does not program the learner. Quite the contrary. Teacher Attitudes The teachers surveyed for the lEA study in 1989 reported that they considered computers "important" in the modern world. They believed that information technology must be a part of the cultural background of today's citizen and that they themselves as well as their pupils must learn this new science. Teachers who considered computers as gadgets, expensive toys, or All state, province, Community, and Catholic schools in elementary and secondary education, excluding special education, were surveyed by this study. At the upper secondary level, this encompassed all of the vocational schools as well as the general secondary schools; at the lower secondary level, "comprehensive vocational education" was included but vocational education (with about 23% of lower secondary students) was not (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991, p. 114).

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an "ephemereal fashion" were rare, as were those who feared their dehumanizing effects or their threat to people's jobs. Generally too, the teachers reported that they felt confident in their capacity to "manage with a computer" (Henry & Deltour). The female teachers, moreover, expressed average attitudes that differed little from those of their male colleagues. However, in actuality, the women reported using a keyboard much less than the men at both school levels, and their rates of familiarity with computers at home or at school were much lower. Also, the women teachers had less often followed any kind of retraining organized by their schools, less often used a teaching program, and less often put their pupils in contact with a computer. Thus, even though they judged computers in the same manner as their male counterparts, they less often had the wish or the occasion to use them concretely. Conferences and Publications Several EU summer schools dedicated to the introduction of computers in primary schools have been convened in Belgium. In 1985 and 1987, they were located at the University of Liege; in 1986 and 1988, at the University of Gent. In 1990, the Seventh International Conference on Technology and Education (ICTE) took place in Brussels, co-organized by the Universities of Liege, Gent, and Austin-Texas (Estes, Heene, & Leclercq, 1990).^ In 1993, two NATO conferences were organized by the University of Liege, one on interactive testing (Leclercq & Bruno, 1993) and the other on control technology in elementary schools (Denis, 1993). The 4th International Congress on Control Technology in Schools also took place in Belgium in 1993 (Denis & Baron, 1993). One cooperative EU project conducted in France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom focussed on the clinical observation of implementing computer use in novice primary schools (that is, in schools where computers had not been used before) and resulted in two books, one in French (Osterrieth, 1989) and one in English (Blease & Cohen, 1990). Numerous other articles and books have been dedicated to the topic of IT use in schools (Charlier, LeBlanc, & Pettit, 1994; Duchateau, 1992; Hardy & Denis, 1983; Leclercq, 1987). Some include treatments of more specific topics such as computer-assisted The Belgium French Community's permanent representative in the ICTE Conferences, under the direction of Dr. Martegani and Dr. Van Hove, is the University of Louvain-LaNeuve.

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instruction (Depover, 1990) or the animation of a LOGO activity (Denis, 1993).

Policy and Practice Differences in the Community Schools The pontics have varied for the different organizing authorities of the educational system. Thus, this section describes specific poUcies and practices in the Community schools, and the next section describes the same for the free schools. Recall from Table 1 that about half of the schools are free. Among the rest of the schools, only the Community schools have guidelines. Three Goals Improving secondary education. For the school network of the Belgium French Community, three general goals were set up: to improve secondary education, equal opportunities between boys and girls, and permanent teacher training.^ Detailed objectives for the first goal included gaining a better knowledge of the learning process; developing pedagogical research; developing integrated or cross-disciplinary teaching; struggling against dropout decisions by students, especially in professional education; and improving via computer networking the links the schools have to each other and to their administrative offices. Establishing equal opportunities between boys and girls with the new information technologies has received several efforts. In 1986, an actionresearch supported by the European Union began in two schools of the Brussels area with the dual aim of demythologizing IT, especially among girls, and of making the teaching community aware of the equal opportunities problem. The actions in this project were much varied. They included handson activities, interviews, investigations, visits to companies, literature searches, conferences, and debates. Discussions based upon videos or the visits of guests were also held for pupils, sometimes with their parents. All such activities are intended to encourage the greater participation of girls in the technological education available to them. ^

Policy is coordinated at the secondary level by Inspector Verlove and at the primary level by Inspector Mossiat and General Inspector Delmelle.

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Much information on this topic can be drawn from the evaluations of university teams that have been studying educational technology in the Community schools. Sougne (1989) observed that girls do not play much in a spontaneous.manner with legos and motors~"that's a game for boys"; but they do involve themselves as much as the boys in automatization and LOGO seminars. With themes that are slightly more "culturally influenced," they also build robots as well as the boys. The findings of Peeters and Debled (1989) resulted from a survey of 900 pupils, 500 in the third to sixth grades of elementary school and 400 in the first year of secondary school. The survey asked questions about which qualities were most important and how abilities were shared or divided among men and women, what professions the pupils were considering, what activities they appreciated (for instance, machine operation, team leadership, and computer handling), and so on. Differences in perceptions were observed, regarding statistics as well as abilities, which showed discrepancies with reality. Stereotypes seem to be more persistent than facts—whereupon a need for intervention! Another divergent vision of the same reality was observed in the answers given by teachers. In response to the same, but slightly adapted questions—for example, "What do the girls in your class prefer?", the teachers suspected preferences among their students that were discrepant from the actual ones the students reported for themselves. The needs for teachers' permanent training are evaluated by the relevant administration in concertation with the inspection department, various instructors' teams, and the Training Centre of the French Conmiunity located in Huy. While it may be recommended by an inspector or headmaster, it is not compulsory. In principle, staff permanent training for Community schools is free, but the funds set aside for this purpose, constituting 0.1% of the education budget, are largely insufficient. Moreover, because of the volunteer aspect of involvement in permanent training, it is difficult to estimate what percentage of teachers is reached by an annual program. About 5% participate every year. But among them are many who, convinced of its usefulness, volunteer for most activities and come back year after year. A wide span of topics is offered in permanent training. Among others, they include the update of theoretical and technical knowledge, introductions to the handling of new teaching materials and new technologies, and collaboration with nonscholarly environments and the economic world. The number of inservice days, seminars, conferences, program commission meetings, and meetings about research and evaluation has grown. But that has not necessarily kept pace with the growth in needs. All of these activities aim first of all at arousing the wish among teachers to adapt to new situations. As a result, the present training shows a great flexibility. It cannot ensure in

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conjunction the improvement of every teacher in a systematic, regular, and continuous way. The days devoted to inservice or retraining sessions focus on improving teaching skills and promoting better adaptations among teachers to the goals of renovation. As a general rule, this type of training is carried out in regional groups under the conduct of inspectors or group leaders. Inservices at the Training Centre in Huy initiate teachers to the material exhibited there and also involve discussions with concerned group leaders. Recently, the Belgium French Community was able to distribute a distance computer course for a wide audience that included teachers.^ Efforts should be made in addition to build better links between the resources for school training and the resources available in other nonscholarly environments. Acquisition of Equipment The equipment configuration recommended for the schoolyear 1989-90 came from a leaflet issued in 1988 by the Education Head Office of the Belgium French Community schools. At that time, it was suggested that secondary, elementary, and special education schools acquire PC-XTs. Since then, a commission made up of computer specialists and delegates from the different head offices of the Ministry of Education prepared a new technical document to describe the desired equipment. Now the basic, recommended configuration consists of an AT microcomputer processor 80386 SX with 4 megabytes internal memory, a 40M hard disk, and a video display. Establishments that expect to need greater speed and calculation power-for example, to link workbenches to a network—will prefer the following configuration: an AT 80386 DX with a higher clock frequency of 25 MHz and possibly a mathematics 80387 coprocessor. If schools wish to acquire other types of equipment, they must attend to a series of listed criteria, among which are the possibilities for extension and upgrading. The equipment recommended for administrative use is almost identical, except that it should allow in addition connection via telephone and modem to computers from the Education Department's Information Processing Centre. The organizing authority has tried to use the equipment existing in the schools in the best manner. Hence, it has carried out equipment distribution according to pedagogical criteria. Considerations include the schools' populations and stocklists of their existing equipment, the teachers' levels and ^

The Community created a distance education service in 1959. By 1989, 200 courses and 1000 students were involved (Duchesne, 1991).

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nature of training, the subjects involved, the nature of proposed projects (excluding management projects), and the present uses of existing equipment. The Present Situation in the Community's Schools Elementary level. About 65% of the schools are currently equipped with at least one computer. One of the Community's inspectors is delegated by his or her peers as the main delegate for data processing orientation. The decisions and opinions of a team of inspectors that meets regularly are summarized and distributed in a monthly paper, Inspecto News. Elementary school head teachers are all kept informed in a systematic manner, and training and information is given out freely to every school every three months. The priority now goes to using word processors and programs that allow the administrative and pedagogical management of projects. School initiatives, submitted with pedagogical justifications, are chosen by the inspectors according to the evolution in their districts. Every pedagogical project that is undertaken receives technical assistance from the team of computer counselors. Software is promoted in accordance with the general plan decided upon by the inspectors' team. A group made up of the responsible inspector and three other delegates produces and modifies coursewares so they can be presented in the schools during special information days. Four software packages that allow the management of reports about teaching staff, pupils, and supplies are now available to all of the French Community's schools. In the classroom, emphasis is laid upon the importance of teachers being present while pupils use computers because that should help bring about a certain number of changes in the teaching function and also the discovery of pupils' different attitudes toward computers. In terms of other possible IT roles, the notion of an expert teacher who would ensure all of the data processing activities is not recommended. In fact, just the contrary. However, having a resource person can be very useful. Secondary level. Goals corresponding to many of the approaches listed in the next paragraphs were included in the compulsory school curriculum of certain sections in 1991. Generally emphasized are the simultaneous needs to obtain information on the existing technology and to accomplish staff training (of the necessary serenity) in the realm of equipment use as well as in the pedagogical reflection necessary for using it intelligendy.

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In the general track, nothing is centraUzed; the various uses recommended for IT depend upon the decisions every inspector makes for his or her geographic area of authority. According to the disciphnes involved and the existing possibilities in the business world, some inspectors have recommended using open coursewares, languages like LOGO, and a few productions of local or foreign universities (Cabri Geometre, for instance). Others take advantage of professional programs such as word processors and spreadsheets and even use professional databases with a pedagogical perspective. These decisions have resulted in the setting up in the classroom of application programs, mechanisms for their management and exploitation, and materials to assist students and teachers in problem solving (glossaries, formula lists, and other various forms of help). Finally, communication among school teachers has been expanded thanks to electronic mail. In technical education, emphasis is laid upon the use of programs related to computer-assisted manufacturing (for instance, SIMCAD) and upon programmable automatic piloting. Users of the new technologies in technical education systematically express multiple goals. By exploiting the new teaching equipment, they want to develop an interactive, motivating pedagogy that makes pupils active, prepared for the future, and able to use international computer units. Ideally, students would come to understand the technological vocabulary—thanks to a correct etymological approach; learn a structured approach to problem solving and a critical sense from working with concrete problems; develop skills in logical thinking, synthetic and analytic thinking, observation, and understanding; tackle fundamental concepts better by carrying out thinking and handling simultaneously; develop creativity by learning through interaction with a technological environment that favors the acquisition of basic concepts in various fields of activity; and acquire more autonomy in the learning process. Indeed, computers are seen as connected to the development of personal well-being. Combining heuristic and algorithmic methods, correctly conceptualizing fundamental technological notions, properly interpreting the structure and internal logic of computer programs, analyzing data, and communicating results are all activities related to the attainment of these goals.

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Future Perspectives Developing trends since 1988. Teaching institutions have increasingly been granted greater independence through funds and the freedom for schools to initiate renovation projects that adequately exploit their "teaching periods capital." In other words, global amounts of funds have been granted that can be shaped by each school to fit its specific projects. Other trends that stand out include the introduction of computers in a number of subjects such as economics, mathematics, physics, history, and electricity and the development of the "computer" options as a new subject in the curriculum. New optional subjects were also set up in professional areas such as nursing, the operation of numerical command machines, office work, and management to respond to new needs in those fields. In collaboration with universities, computer-aided and other audio-visual teaching has been elaborated. Some simple and rapid programs were also created by teachers who had acquired a sufficient background. In short, the dialogue between the teaching world and the changing technological world has more or less become permanent. Current plans. The installation of a modem is scheduled in about 20 elementary schools, and a data bank will be set up in one school as the data feeder. Every program will be accompanied by an individual document, in the form of a contract, that aids self-training and self-evaluation. For example, the data bank will include the success percentages that were observed during previous uses and for every item. At first, the subjects covered by this project will be numbers, mathematical operations, and reading. The second use of the item bank will be as a permanent mailbox for the inspectors. To reorganize schools, a large range of technological possibilities is theoretically available. Difficulties in changing school organization come first from the non-availability in all areas of equipment that pupils can use individually. Second, a reorganization necessarily implies greater complexity in managing the classroom because it is fully acknowledged that every pupil is at a different level in every subject. Therefore, the method of projecting from the computer screen to a large surface (with electronic acetate and a retroprojector) should meet large success as it allows the implementation of certain computer pedagogical possibilities without changing the organization of the classroom. In the same manner as a teacher uses the blackboard, he or she can remain alone and facing the entire classroom.

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Changing the curriculum seems even more difficult when it often must be done over a large geographical area such as a province or an entire country. Because a great number of French Conmiunity schools are far from being well-equipped with computers, the central authority cannot impose a uniform curriculum. Too many would not be able to implement it. Only by local initiatives or in small and prosperous bodies will curriculum changes most often be observed. Moreover, in spite of the efforts of conmiunes and of the inspection's numerous initiatives, all of the teachers are not yet retrained. They have neither had the occasion to handle a computer in the classroom yet nor been informed of the numerous pedagogical uses offered by computers. However, a demand in that direction exists, as is notably emphasized in the report of the O.S.E. Centres (Network of O.S.E. Centres, 1991). Considering a curriculum generalization (—but when?), educators will be facing numerous studies that have evaluated the impact of the experiments to date and will probably concentrate more on the methods than on the subjects. In other words, the students may cover more material, but not merely in order to "swallow" all of it. On the contrary, the students themselves will have to exploit IT in order to include it in their school projects. In the process, they will be laying emphasis upon their own approaches, strategies, and capabilities for acquiring new knowledge in an independent manner. Overall, the core of the curriculum will probably shrink and be compensated by a greater requirement for mastery. Will individualized tutorship and systematic drilling still be tolerated side by side with hypermediatized exploration, simulation, and micro-worlds? Probably. To what extent? That is what current researches must tell us. But we can already foresee that this will depend on the age of the learners, on the subjects, and of course on the educational objectives. Since there is a tendency to "teach as taught," the initial training of teachers should help them live what they are supposed to offer to their future students.

Policy and Practice Differences for the Free Subsidiated (Mainly Catholic) Schools Strategies to Introduce IT It is probably not realistic to wish to form a general description of the strategies used to introduce IT into the classrooms of the free subsidiated schools. The number of local attempts, most often by teachers' initiatives, has been great and the reasons for doing so diverse. In Belgium, there has been no real debate to precede the introduction of computers into schools, whether it

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be to consider them as a new school subject or as tools for teaching and learning. As no legal steps apply for basic or secondary education, each education network has a certain freedom and could decide that there will be "x" compulsory hours of computer science in the schedule of the pupils, even though such a decision would be better made in concertation. Presently, free subsidiated schools are not obligated to offer computer science courses. Nonetheless, several factors act in favor of recognizing technology's usefulness in learning. Computer hardware and software companies and program developers see an important market in the education world, within which are the isolated teachers. Some companies even specialize in the development of educational programs. And some non-computer companies, such as banks, list their existing programs and provide access to their data banks via modem. It is presently hoped that all of the secondary pupils will either take a computer course or one of the other subject options that include computer science as a part of the course (for instance, office work). But courses with computer science components are not always available, and the existing structures do not easily allow for change. Right now a pupil could take a computer course in the first year of secondary school and pursue it for 6 years or start learning about computers 2 years later and pursue it during the following 4 years. This manner of functioning implies the problem of heterogeneity among the pupils' levels since teachers may have both beginner and experienced pupils in the same class. Structures At the National Federation of Secondary Catholic Education (FNESeC), a data processing department for basic education has three attributions: the link between data processing and school administration, the file "computers and pedagogy," and everything informative regarding the school equipment (both the hardware and software necessary for the pedagogical and administrative aspects). This department ensures as well the organization of the teaching of computer science as a subject. Another body, the Reflexion Group on Computers and Education, created in 1990 and constituted of stakeholders in the Catholic School Federation, inspectors, university professors, and school teachers, is in charge of revisiting the content of computer literacy courses in secondary schools. A few years ago, the Reflexion Group sent a questionnaire to the teachers in charge of this course asking for their opinions and facts about their schools (Duchateau & Sass, 1992). Based upon the answers it received, the group

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proposed a deep revision of the curriculum (FNESeC, 1992a, 1992b). It also organized (within the framework of the Catholic Institute for Continuous Training) work groups of teachers, inspectors, and university professors whose missions were to produce didactic examples illustrating the new principles. Equipment Funds and Acquisition The introduction of computers into the classroom is subordinated to a number of different factors; the education world-which is more or less the carrier, the personality of the authority in this area, local teachers' initiatives, the schools' headmasters, the inspectors, and the concertation between these actors. The non-profit association set up for the Catholic education, INFODIDAC, has been in charge since 1992 of studying the technical problems related to computerizing schools in the free schools network. It organizes the commercial operation of acquiring equipment, formulated some recommendations with regard to the kinds of hardware that should be adopted, and negotiated reference contracts with computer producers. As no budget amount is allotted in the free schools' network for the new information technologies, every school must equip itself using its own budget which comes mainly from subsidies.* Thus, INFODIDAC suggests that school headmasters place grouped orders for hardware and software in order to purchase the items at lower cost, and it even offers appealing financing facilities to schools so as to help them purchase the IT tools they need. Grouped purchase proposals normally concern products that will be compatible with the old machines. Windows was excluded, for instance. Schools are submitted to fashion and to outside financial influence. Because of the world market and because of the lowering of equipment prices, they are essentially equipped with compatible PCs. However, many machines in use date back to the early 1980s (Apple II, BBC, TRS 80), a time when they were used for the learning of algorithms which did not require sophisticated equipment. The number of XT and AT PCs in the 400 secondary schools were counted at 4000-5000 in the early 1990s. But these numbers should not lead to the calculation of an average. Every school does not own 10 computers! When a new product appears, whatever be its source, the present policy of the free schools' computer department is to set up a team of inspectors and The Government does, however, give out budgets now and again for the permanent training of teachers, and parts of those funds are sometimes used for IT.

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teachers to evaluate the product. The team defines its own criteria from a pedagogical point of view and evaluates the product solely from the computer point of view. Once these analyses are finished and negotiation with a distributing company has been arranged, the product can be distributed to the schools that request it. The Extent of IT Use in Schools In elementary schools, computer-assisted education is essentially present with the use of small drill programs, word processors, and the LOGO language. But this is true in a limited manner because of the lack of equipment in the schools and the price of coursewares. Out of 790 elementary schools, 1/3 own at least one computer, but it is often intended for administrative management. Only about 10 schools have small computer laboratories. In secondary education, computer courses are not compulsory except in specialized sections such as computerized management, office, and economics or where a course's content includes the use of a computer. Other secondary pupils who wish to have computer courses in their programs may do so by selecting a complementary activity or course as one of their optional choices. Until the early 1990s, the most widespread computer course dealt with algorithms. But changes in priorities happen as time goes on (cf. FNESeC, 1992a, 1992b). Presently, most teachers wish to use computers in every school year and to maintain a single computer option that studies algorithms in depth only for a more specialized audience in the third cycle of secondary education. Certain areas more aware of the use of computers and for whom programs and direct applications exist (accounting, artistic sections, and so on) have already progressed in their use of IT. Requests about the possible uses of computers have begun to appear in other areas, too. Technical and professional tracks often request products because they are used in the professions for which pupils train, in the clothing profession or office work, for example. Equal opportunities between men and women. No steps currently exist concerning equal opportunities. But because of the present widespread idea that new technologies are, "sexualized", the secondary education authorities have decided to make school headmasters aware of the problem and to suggest using computers in ways that try to erase this inequality.

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The Most Successful Strategy Areas Administration. School microcomputers are widely used as management tools via a number of applications of interest to headmasters, secretaries, and other school staff. These applications are either the result of a centralized solution, a local solution, or one that combines the efforts of central and local actors and actions. Altogether, they contribute to creating a shared computer culture. Whereas, every school in the French Community network sends its data to a central computer which processes the data and sends it back, in free Catholic education, the centralized school authorities help to specify a management tool, and then its elaboration is entrusted to a local team. Once the tool is chosen, tested, and validated, it is distributed among the schools that wish to acquire it. Of course, solutions involving a home-made software are entirely local. The school management programs produced by INFODIDAC were developed in close collaboration with the relevant administrative authorities and are used by the majority of Catholic schools. Opinion questionnaires about these software packages (namely Prosec for secondary education, Proprim for the primary level, and Cubic) revealed a satisfaction rate of 95% with them. Teaching computer science. In secondary and third cycle education, computer science has become a subject that is taught just like any other. Certain professional and technical areas that include data processing in their curriculum must be considered differently than the general education which offers a computer science course. Since 1983, the most frequent situation has probably been the 2-hours-per-week complementary option in the last two years of secondary school. Generally, the necessary data processing equipment is gathered in the room where the course is given or at least a room pupils may go to in the framework of their training. Most often mathematics and science teachers are responsible for the computer courses, which typically represent a joint activity with most of the efforts still being made in the main subject. Most often computer science was not included in the initial training of these teachers. They are either self-taught or had to retrain in order to acquire the necessary skills. The main reasons that motivate the teaching of computer science are fashion, competition between schools, pressure from parents ("Computer science is the future!"), and the social myth ("Those who know computers have no problems in getting jobs!"). Yet that kind of pressure did not necessarily require the setting up of a new course. The important thing to meet the demand was simply to arrange that young people "could touch" or get to "be familiar" with computers. But the structure of secondary education

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being what it is~compartmentalized into subjects, the shortest way to "put the pupils in contact with computers" was in fact to set up a new course. The announced goals of such courses are to demythologize the computer and data processing and to help pupils to discover and handle the programs and to think about the social and cultural implications of computerization. But most of all, the goal is to train students to the algorithmic way of thinking, which mostly comes from a correct learning of programming. Beyond the information aspect of the suggested initiation to programming, the educational aspect is widely put forward. That is, programming should develop pupils' analytical and organizational capabilities, lead them to a better problem-solving methodology, and increase their capabilities for expressing themselves in a clear and rigorous manner. Since 1992, as a consequence of the work accomplished by the Reflexion Group on Computers and Education, a new form of initiation to the use of computers and software has been suggested in the format of a course entitled Computer Sciences--A Workshop for All (FNESeC, 1992a, 1992b). The central objective of this idea is to offer to the greatest number of pupils possible a relevant and effective encounter with basic concepts about computing and to enable them to use software tools in a creative, efficient, and mind-controlled way. Pedagogical guidelines are currently being elaborated to suggest strategies for the project and give methodological advice to teachers. At last, too, an experiment with a "technico mental" activity is developing in 10 schools in which control technology (robotics) is a central part of the approach. Computer-assisted education is easier to introduce among pupils of professional education than among those of general education, probably because the teachers in professional classes use computers more willingly. Data processing was first introduced in a structured manner at the second and third levels of professional education. More recent programs exist for general education and for (transition and qualification) technical education, but the programs for professional education were never brought up to date. Thus, although the programs exist for the second and third levels, the schools must not use them. In order to follow an alternate program, a school must write one and submit it to higher authorities for approval. At the second level, every school that wishes to use computers must write its own program. Among the teachers, mathematicians have been taught to use software like Cabri Geometre and, in a minor way, Mathematica, and networks of users have been formed that permit exchanges of experiences and questions with particular software programs. An especially active group is in mother tongue learning where software like Elmo is extensively used.

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Looking Back and Forward Factors for success. The success of educational IT in the free subsidiated schools depends upon three essential factors. Most obvious are the equipment and the nature of the teachers' training. The third factor is the setting up of logistic teams that can be responsible for the efficient and harmonious operation of the data processing units. In terms of equipment, much effort must still be made, but the choices are difficult because of the fast evolution of available computer configurations. As the equipment will always evolve faster in the market than in the schools, we could find ourselves in varied classroom sceneries composed of PCs (XT or AT 286 and 386) and Macintoshes. This diversity seems less difficult to manage, however, than were the incompatibilities of the first wave of microcomputers. The users' computer culture today builds itself much more around the programs than around the equipment, and the program environments (especially user interfaces) presently tend towards uniformity. Little by little, at the same time as equipment enters the school, the differences remaining in the deeper layers of the equipment and the basic program are disappearing. The teachers, as future users of IT, must be made aware of its importance. This enterprise is a long-range one which has to join sufficient technical mastery to reflections about and experiments with the relevance of such-andsuch programs for particular pedagogical uses. When a sufficient number of pioneers are trained in every subject, the solution will probably be that these experienced teachers ensure the training of their colleagues. Probably too, this will constitute the best guarantee of an actual appropriation of the computers by concerned teachers and for the various subjects. The moment, and the place one would choose, for this awareness to be instilled is in teachers' basic training, where most of the efforts should be concentrated. Technical support specialties are needed because the use of IT is always accompanied by a certain number of technical problems. Sooner or later, the users, even if they became specialists with a given software program, will face problems they cannot solve such as a virus infection or how to interface with a certain printer or simply the accidental erasure of a floppy disk—or worse and not so simply, a hard disk. A reasonable solution cannot be for all users to become absolute experts in the details of DOS or distinguished connoisseurs of the repertoires' labyrinths. That would be similar to expecting all automobile drivers to become mechanics. However, none of this means that, when the time comes, a user should not be able to call quickly and on the

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spot for the help of an expert colleague. One or several experts are needed in a school for the others teachers to call upon. The role of these "computer fixers" should be officially recognized and should affect their status (by giving them training possibilities, fewer teaching hours, and so on). Relying solely on the good will and helpfulness of random others may work for a time. But over a long period of time, we condemn a great part of an innovation project's logistic-thus the project itself—if we do not recognize officially the services rendered by the teachers involved. These are a few factors to consider within the school itself if we wish to use computers harmoniously. Some conditions for technical support must also be met outside of the school. When facing the frequent failures, often even the carelessness or incompetence of some equipment and program salespeople, schools often cannot solve the problem with their local experts. These difficulties must absolutely be submitted to an expert team whose task should be to help the serious cases of difficulty concerning application programs and basic progress. The local experts could be partially integrated to these teams and serve as an interface through their capacity to precisely describe the problems. In addition, we need a place where all of the people cited above will be able to help each other and work side by side, the "SOS-computer" team, the persons responsible for the census of the educational products in the schools, those who manage the teaching software library, the instructors, the researchers, the program conception teams, and so on. Other issues. No means of developing educational products that will use the new technologies exist in the federation. Setting up teams to create applications for products that may be used as a development basis for teachers (hypercard, for instance) would be interesting. For the open computer-assisted education programs, groups should be set to work to fill them by creating use-scripts and learning sequences based on the various products. The idea that everyone in secondary education should be able to access the computer lab, if one existed, is often repeated. Typically that requires modification of the social organization in the schools. Pupils of professional education have long been disfavored in this respect. An important component in the potential to modify schools' organizations has probably been the influence of data processing upon the schools' administration. The fact that activities can now take place in schools which could not take place before sends questions back to challenge the creativity of the teachers.

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of their authorities, and of the programs. We must, however, see to it that computers do not evict existing structures and do not systematically influence the contents. As of yet, no study has been conducted on the impact or the advantages of the new technologies in education, except for the research carried out by the National Federation of Secondary Catholic Education (FNESeC) on the teaching of computer science as a subject (cf. Duchateau & Sass, 1992). The results of its project, entitled "[The] role of the training to computer science in free Catholic secondary education," have yet to be published.

Concluding Remark Microcomputers are not even 20 years old. Commercial programs for them are not even 10 years old. Yet one could expect that the educational uses of computers would be numerous and conmionplace. Here as elsewhere, these changes will come with time. Pulling on children will not make them grow faster! And patience need not mean passivity or simple expectations but rather perseverance and stubbornness. Another trap would be to believe that the necessary conditions, the provision of hardware and software, will be sufficient. Only the teacher facing the students in a classroom can allow the union of data processing tools (and of other technological means) with the school universe. That person alone has the power of transforming the enormous potential of the new technical means into beneficial realities for teaching and for learning. A successful introduction to computer science for the students in a school is unavoidably dependent on its integration into the methodologies of the teachers. Our school system is going through a crisis as are most of the occidental educational systems, and the new information technologies, with all of their possible tools, do not provide the universal remedy. There is nevertheless a positive aspect to this first era of IT's uses in education. Many of the products developed during this time were easily integrated into the everyday practice of the teachers because the potential users had also been the creators.

References Blease, D., & Cohen, L. (1990). Coming to terms with computers. Service de Technologie de r Education, Universite de Liege. CERI. (1992). L'education et les Nouvelles Techniques de l'Information, Formation des enseignants et recherche: une enquete sur des projets de cooperation entre universites et ecoles (Education and the new information technologies, molding the teaching and research:

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A survey of cooperative projects between universities and schools). Center for Research and Innovation in Education (CERI), Paris. Charlier, B., LeBlanc, R., & Pettit, V. (1994). "Un EDIPO, comment 9a se vit en classe?" In L'integration de Vordinateur a I'ecole. Vol. II. Des outils pour apprendre avec Vordinateur (The integration of the computer in school, Vol II: The tools for learning with the computer), directed by P. Bordeleau. Montreal: Editions Logiques. Deltour, N. (1990). Les ordinateurs en Education (Computers and education, Report on the DBA Study of Computers in Education in the Belgium French Community). SEDEP, Universite de Liege. Denis, B. (Ed.) (1993). Control technology in elementary education (NATO Asi Series, Vol. 116). Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. Denis, B., & Baron, G. (1993). "Regards sur la robotique pedagogique" (A look at robotics pedagogy). Proceedings of the Fourth International Colloquium on Robotics Pedagogy, July 5-8. Service de Technologic de 1'Education, Universite de Liege, Institut National de Recherche Pedagogique (INRP), Paris. Depover, C. (1990). Uordinateur Media d'enseignement (Computer media in education). Brussels: De Boeck. Duchateau, C. (1992). "L'ordinateur et I'ecole. Un mariage difficile" (The computer and the school. A difficult marriage). FUNDP, 5(28):31 (Publications of CEFIS, Facultes Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur). Duchateau, C , & Sass, F. (1992). "En Belgique, ou en est-on? 0\x va-t-on?" (In Belgium, where have we been? Where are we going?). Pp. 15-27 in Proceedings of the Third FrenchSpeaking Meeting on the Didactics of Information Processing. Sion, Paris: EPI. Estes, N., Heene, J., & Leclercq, D. (Eds.) (1990). New pathways to learning through educational technology (Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technology and Education-ICTE, May, Brussels). Edinburgh: CEP Consultants. EURYDICE. (1990). Structure d'enseignement et de formation initiale dans les Etats membres de la Communaute Europeenne (The structure of teachers' initial training in the member states of the European Community). Commission of the European Community, Brussels. FNESeC. (1992a). Un atelier pour tous: Perspectives (A workshop for all: Perspectives, Document 1992/0279/102/A). Information Processing, National Federation of Secondary Catholic Education (FNESeC), Brussels. FNESeC. (1992b). Un atelier pour tous: Programmes (A workshop for all: Programmes, Document 1992/0279/102/B). Information Processing, National Federation of Secondary Catholic Education (FNESeC), Brussels. Hardy, J.L., & Denis, B. (1983). Pourquoi LOGO dans un contexte educatifl (Why LOGO in the educational context?) Labor, Brussels. Leclercq, D. (1987). "L'ordinateur et les defis de I'apprentissage, partie n^ 1" (The computer and the challenge of learning. Part 1). Horizon, 13:29-32. Leclercq, D. (1988). "L'ordinateur et les defis de I'apprentissage, partie n^ 2" (The computer and the challenge of learning. Part 2). Horizon, 14:22-25. Leclercq, D., & Bruno, J. (Eds.) (1993). "Item banking, interactive testing and self-assessment." Colloque NATO ARW. Beriin: Springer Veriag. Ministry of Education. (1985). Etude de la faisabilite de Vintroduction de Vinformatique dans Venseignement (Feasibility study for introducing information technologies into education). Bureau of Marcel van Dijk, Ministry of Education, Research and Training, Brussels. Ministry of Education. (1986). L'informatique dans le systeme eiiwcarz/ (Information processing in the education system). Bureau of Marcel van Dijk, Ministry of Education, Research and Training, Brussels.

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Ministry of Education. (1990). Le mouvement educatif en Communaute Frangaise de Belgique (The education movement in the Belgium French Community). Ministry of Education, Research and Training, Brussels. National Secretariate of Catholic Schools. (1989). Repertoire de VEnseignement Catholique (Index of CathoUc teaching). LICAP s.c. Rue Guimard 1, 1040 Brussels. Network of O.S.E. Centres. (1992). Rapports d'activite (Report of activities). Ordinateur au Service de I'Education (O.S.E.) O.S.E. reports may be obtained through Dr. Boxus or Dr. Leclerq whose affiliations are shown below. Osterrieth. (1989). L'Informatique tranquille (Be cool with IT). Collection of Pedagogy and Research, Director General of the Organisation of Studies, Brussels. Peeters, R., & Debled, C. (1989). Interet et participation des filles lors des activites scolaires liees aux Nouvelles Technologies de l'information (The interest and participation of girls since school activities joined to the new information technologies. Report on the researchaction 1988-89 of the CCE). Director General of the Organisation of Studies, Brussels. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (1991). The use of computers in education worldwide. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Sougne, J. (1990). "Logo Scan: A toolkit to analyse Logo programs," In New pathways to learning through educational technology (Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technology and Education-ICTE, May, Brussels), edited by N. Estes, J. Heene, and D. Leclercq. Edinburgh: CEP Consultants.

Drs. Boxus and Leclercq are associated with the University of Liege, the former being the scientific secretary of the General Board of Studies and the latter being a Professor and Head of the Service de Technologic de TEducation. Dr. Duchateau is affiliated with CEFIS, Facultes Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur.

PETIA ASSENOVA, RUMEN NIKOLOV, IVAN STANCHEV, AND JORJETA KOLEVA

TEACHING INFORMATICS IN THE BULGARIAN SCHOOLS

The Bulgarian education system is in the process of decentralizing and shifting decision-making power from the government towards the local educational councils and authorities, school principals, and teachers. The state funds the education system by allocating resources from the budget of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, local counties, and some other state organizations that are responsible for running special schools. In Bulgaria, the approach of teaching informatics in separate courses is widely applied. But experiments in integrating informatics across the curriculum are also being conducted, and a number of new projects in computer education have recently been initiated. Empirical studies show that despite the positive experiences and valuable research that have resulted from some interesting projects and initiatives, Bulgarian schools face a number of severe problems in computer education. The primary reason for that is economic.

The dynamic changes going on in Bulgaria and in other countries from Central and Eastern Europe are posing new problems to be solved by their education systems. At the same time, massive educational restructurings are hardly possible because most of those countries suffer from a deep economic crisis. One of the main directions Bulgaria has taken recently is to move away from a state-controlled model and toward a state-supervised model for guiding the education system. Thus the decision-making power is shifting from the state government to local educational councils and authorities, school principals, and teachers. This transition proceeds despite a legislative environment full of contradictions from the fact that many new laws exist together with some old ones. Nevertheless the process of decentralization gradually continues in order to prevent the appearance of making too little progress. The recent emergence of a number of private and specialized schools has likewise had the effect of breaking the state monopoly on education. In spite of the great economic and social problems the country is facing, Bulgarian teachers and educational scientists are trying to preserve and even 139 T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 139-155. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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extend the positive experiences the schools have had with computer education. The great effort needed to do this is inspired by an enormous interest on the part of the students to use computers in school.

The Education System in Bulgaria Nature of the System The basis for most of the recent changes in the education system is the new Law for People Education which Parliament passed (Darj. Vestnik, 1991). It specifies that education is compulsory for all citizens between the ages of 6 or 7 and 16 years. Regardless of the age of the students, education is free in all state schools. The state subsidizes the education of all students under the age of 16 even though parents pay more for education in private schools. Textbooks for compulsory education are free as well. Normally, one textbook is used per subject, but there are some exceptions. (For example, there are two variants of the textbook for informatics, and the computer teacher decides which one to use.) In the near future, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is expected to introduce national educational standards and to give approval for several textbooks to be eligible for use in a subject area. The state distributes funds for the education system by allocating resources for salaries, textbooks, equipment, and so on from the budgets of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and from other state organizations (such as the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Trade, and the Ministry of Health) that are responsible for running special schools. The budgets of counties and municipalities also support the education system. Elementary and secondary teachers are trained at one of three universities and two teacher training institutions. At Sofia University, in addition to a faculty of general education, many other faculties (such as the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, the Faculty of Physics, and the Faculty of Chemistry) have educational departments as well. Teachers for technical and vocational schools are trained at technical, economic, agricultural, and medical universities and institutes. Some teacher training institutes specialize in professional education at the junior high school level. Inservice teacher training and continuing teacher training are organized by three universities and three specialized institutes.

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Structure of the System The Bulgarian education system has three stages which are shown in Figure 1. Elementary school lasts for 4 years and is followed by basic education which lasts another 4 years. Secondary education begins in the 9th grade and may last from 3 to 5 years depending on the type of school (for example, language schools 5 years, math and science schools 4 years, and some vocational schools 3 years). This is called senior high school while the grades just prior to it (5 through 8) are called junior high school.

Higher Education

Age 19 18 17 16 15 14

1 8

13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

B a s c

E d u c a t i 0

n

i

Junior High School

7

6 5 4 3 2 1

-

J_ZD[

r Elementary Education Kindergarten/Family

H

Gymnasium Vocational Schools

Figure 1. The Bulgarian Educational System.

Table 1 lists the number of schools, teachers, and students that were in the system in the middle of 1991. Elementary schools are those schools limited to the first four grades. Junior high schools may contain the next four grades or all of the grades from 1 through 8. Specialized schools~for example, special schools for culture, language, or for children with handicaps-may also contain grades 4 through 8 or grades 1 through 8. The five craft schools in Bulgaria are lower secondary schools.

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Table 1. Number of Schools, Teachers, and Students in Bulgaria's Education System, 1991 Number of Schools

Number of Students

Number of Teachers

Basic Education Elementary Junior high Specialized Craft

3,333 2,877 175 5

333,572 592,847 18,472 2,785

23,424 37,988 3,108 83

Total

6,390

947,676

64,498

509 498 116

71,039 233,528 78,486

5,429 18,084 5,256

1,123

383,953

28,769

School Level

Secondary Education Unified Professional Specialized Total

Source: White book of the Bulgarian education (1992).

Of the school types at the secondary level, only unified secondary schools contain any grades other than grades 9 through 13. Only students who have completed their basic education enter vocational and specialized schools (for math, languages, science, culture, music, and so on) while unified secondary schools have students from every grade between 1 and 13.

Informatics Education Concepts and Practice Informatics teaching at the secondary school level in Bulgaria has a long history and tradition. Some optional informatics courses were given in the late 1960s to students in mathematics and in vocational schools. Since the late 1970s, the Research Group on Education has been experimenting in 27 elementary and secondary schools to integrate informatics across the curriculum (Nikolov, 1983; Nikolov & Sendova, 1985, 1991). In 1986, informatics became a compulsory school subject for all secondary schools.

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The Experiment of the Research Group on Education In 1979, under the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the Research Group on Education began experimenting in 27 schools with new curricula and new methods of teaching and learning that were closely related to informatics and its applications (Nikolov & Sendova, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1991). The project aimed to take a flexible strategy toward integrating computers into existing school subjects. All three basic levels of education (primary, secondary junior, and secondary senior) were involved, and particular attention was paid to teacher training as a key to the successful teaching of informatics (Nikolov & Sendova, 1991). At the primary level, the project sought to provide an initial, encyclopedictype knowledge of informatics in a nonsystematic fashion. Available in the educational environment were textbooks, computers, Logo-based software (microworlds), computer games, manipulatives. Lego sets, and interface software. Examples of the basic notions to be introduced to the students at this level included algorithm, coding, decoding, variable, assigning a value to a variable, table, graph, or procedure. Then, the follow-up for students was to apply this knowledge to some reasonable school activity in mathematics, language, music, or design. At the secondary junior level, a relatively systematic, hands-on course of informatics was developed, still closely related to other school subjects and based upon a variety of problems and activities. In this way, the experimental project of the Research Group on Education helped the application of informatics to penetrate more deeply into other schools subjects (subjects, for example, like "nature", "life and manufacturing", or "society"). Educational software for this level of the project included a variety of microworlds and software tools, thereby providing broad means for students to both acquire and apply their problem-solving and information-processing skills. Posing a diversity of problems to the students set up more opportunities for them to find their own ways to approach problem-solving with the use of informatics. The Research Group on Education had positive experiences integrating informatics across the curriculum in these 27 experimental programs. Some of what was learned about computer teacher training has now been successfully applied in the training program of Sofia University (Nikolova & Nikolov, 1992). Knowledge from the project also informed the development of a set of integrated textbooks on "mathematics and informatics" for the 8th through 11th grades of Bulgaria's general upper secondary schools. This particular integration of subjects is considered to be beneficial in several respects

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(Sendova, Nikolov, & Dicheva, 1989). With informatics, the mathematical concepts to be taught can be clarified and extended and possibilities for applying them to real situations may be illustrated. Also, using informatics can demonstrate that appropriate tools may yield a variety of solutions to problems. Finally, working with computers might contribute to the image of mathematics-making it seem more experimental and less highly formalized, a characteristic which is often cited as an obstacle to successful mathematics teaching. The Introduction of Equipment into the Schools The procedure for introducing computers into the secondary education system was part of a "Complex Program" for implementing computer technology in the secondary schools that was worked out and approved by the Higher Council for Education at the Ministry of Education in Bulgaria (Pisarev, 1986). During the first three years following the adoption of the Complex Program, more than 16,000 microcomputers were delivered to about 1,000 schools, and a 120-hour course in informatics was made compulsory for all 10th and 11th grade students in Bulgaria. In the 1986-87 school year, two versions of informatics textbooks were written and published; supplemental teacher handbooks to accompany the textbooks have also been completed (Angelov et al., 1987, 1988; Barnev et al., 1987, 1988; Stanchev, 1990). The mass supply of hardware that the secondary schools received during this time consisted of "Pravetz" computers, 8-bit, Apple-compatible computers made in Bulgaria. Every secondary school had at its disposal at least 8 microcomputers. However, the low quality of available peripherals made it impossible to use many applications other than Basic programming. Since about 1989, some 16-bit, IBM/PC-compatible computers, also Bulgarian-made, have been supplied to the schools as well (Azalov, Todorova, & Assenova, 1991). The software most commonly used in the schools includes progranmiing languages like Basic, Pascal, and Logo, but the number of educational software packages available for school use is steadily increasing (Azalov, Todorova, & Assenova, 1991). For several schools, specially designed heterogeneous local-area networks were purchased in order to explore possible improvements for computer education. By this time, the initiative for supplying computers had begun to shift to local councils and schools, but the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture also made special arrangements for some selected school settings which had shown particularly positive results in computer education. In those

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schools, the Ministry estabhshed computer labs fully equipped with IBM/PC and Macintosh computers. The Official Policy of Informatics Education Currently, there is no fixed computer education curricula for Bulgarian schools. However—and even though course guidelines often include such topics as applications and "computers and society"~the way informatics is actually taught in Bulgaria relates closely to a conception of computer literacy that is primarily based upon programming. The first informatics textbooks in the country (mentioned above) focussed heavily on programming in Basic, which was then the only programming language available on all school microcomputers (Angelov et al., 1987, 1988). Step by step, the idea has developed of defining some compulsory minimum of knowledge and skills for computer education, and that idea has now been extended into a governmental intention to formulate educational standards for informatics teaching (Nikolova & Nikolov, 1992). The old totalitarian notion that allowed only one textbook to be used for each subject was effectively overthrown by the Law of People Education, which gives teachers the right to select textbooks and other teaching materials on their own. Teachers will also be able to use their own lectures notes provided they match the yet-to-be-written educational standards for the knowledge and skills students need to acquire in informatics. Following the experiences of the first compulsory courses, a refined and enriched edition of the informatics course appeared by the end of the 1980s, shifted in age level from the 10th and 11th grades to the 9th and 10th grades (Barnev et al., 1989, 1990). In addition, a specially designed, Pascal-like algorithmic language was developed and used as a tool for describing algorithms, and alternative textbooks from the Research Group on Education were offered to the teachers as options they might choose. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture decided to shift informatics teaching once again, this time upwards to the 11th and 12th grades. The decision opposes arguments that informatics should be taught early. For those who consider informatics not simply as an ordinary school subject, but as a tool that can enrich the content and teaching methods of all school subjects, this latest shift in age level seems the least desirable choice of all. However, an option to allow earlier teaching of informatics is envisaged by the Ministry if certain school councils adopt that

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recommendation. A number of optional and extra class activities with computers are envisaged as well. Teacher Training As an element of the Complex Program (Pisarev, 1986; Stanchev, 1990), training projects to improve teachers' qualifications with computers were initiated between 1985 and 1990. The teacher inservice training courses were divided into four levels. The first level, one week long (36 hours), represented a computer literacy course and was intended for all teachers and management staff in the education system. Thus far, 17,000 have completed this first-level course. The secondlevel course, lasting one month (140 hours), was dedicated for nonspecialist teachers; 2300 teachers have completed it. The two higher level training courses were designed for computer specialist teachers and trainers of teachers. More than 650 teachers have taken the third-level, 3-month (440 hour) course that entitles them to teach computer technology and programming in secondary schools. At least 350 have taken the fourth-level, 1-year (940 hours) course for teacher trainers. The preservice training for students who are studying to become informatics teachers is carried out by specialized computer education departments at three universities, one higher education institution, and three teacher training institutions. As a rule the equipment available at these organizations is much better than the equipment that is available in the schools. Thus an advanced and modern style of teacher training can be followed. But it must also be borne in mind that teachers tend to teach the same way they were taught, and only a few of the students in training to be teachers could expect to apply what they learned with advanced equipment in their future positions as teachers (Nikolova & Nikolov, 1992). The Teacher Development program in computer education at Sofia University offers both preservice training for student teachers and inservice teacher training courses (Nikolova & Nikolov, 1992). The training program for those who will become informatics teachers requires 15 months of fulltime study. Topics of study are shown in Table 2. The first of the five main groups of topics accounts for about 50% of the total study time. During their training, student teachers also have an extended teaching practice in the schools under the guidance of some well-qualified teachers. The students who complete this program acquire a qualification as a teacher of informatics and a computer consultant at school.

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Table 2. Topics of Study for the Teacher Development Program in Computer Education at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria

1)

B ackground in informatics Systems and algorithms Introduction of programming (Pascal) Problem-oriented languages (Logo environments) Programming in Prolog Programming in Basic Computer architecture Operating systems

2)

Application software

3)

Methods of computer application in education

4)

English language

5)

Final thesis

Source: Nikolova & Nikolov (1992).

Additional Approaches and Projects Extra-Class Activities A nationwide system of extra-curricular training activities in informatics has been set up for young people in Bulgaria. The activities are run by different schools, local youth organizations, and computer clubs. Every year, over 100 pupils pass through the National Informatics Training Camp, and several national competitions in informatics take place. A National Informatics Olympiad is held for pupils in three rounds (school, regional, and national); a Spring Informatics Tournament gathers more than a hundred pupils from all over the country; and a programming contest in three rounds is held for 10- to 14-year-old pupils. Then during school vacations, participants in the national Olympiads (and other contests) are invited to training camps in informatics and mathematical linguistics. The National Team in Informatics, which is made up of carefully selected school students who participate in international competitions, gets special attention.

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All this shows that Bulgaria has established a system for working with students who show high interest and performance skills with using computers. University teachers, research workers, and informatics students together take part in teaching and organizing such activities. A number of competitions, seminars, tournaments, and the like are thus available at national and at local levels. Some organizations such as the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians publish manuals, programming problem sets, and bulletins in relation to these extra-class activities. International Projects and RCEI Represented by the Research Center on Educational Informatics (RCEI), Bulgaria is an active member of the UNESCO International Informatics Program and the special committee on computer education of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP). Bulgaria is also an initiator and active participant in a number of international undertakings in the field of computers in education (for example, in organizing the international conference "Children in the Information Age"). In 1986, a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project on teaching informatics at school was worked out with UNESCO as the executive organization and the RCEI at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as a local executing organization. Within the framework of this project, 12 subprojects, embracing all aspects of computer use in education, have been executed. The five subproject titles given below are examples. 1.

Principles, Approaches, Tools, and Methods for Teaching Informatics in the Primary and Secondary School

2.

Principles, Approaches, and Methods for Development and Application of Videocomputer Systems in Education

3.

Methods and Tools for Knowledge Representation and Processing in Education

4.

Theoretical Basis and Practical Applications of Computer Education systems (including Educational Local Area Networks)

5.

Development of Knowledge Based Testing Systems

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Other projects as well have been initiated at an international level, such as the joint project of RCEI and LEGO DACTA. This subproject aimed at introducing activities based on LEGO kits into the education system of the Research Group on Education by developing a curriculum, educational software, methodological materials, and textbooks for that purpose. Another international project aimed at developing a directory (called a System of Scientific and Technical Publications and Information Bulletins) based on a network of periodicals in educational informatics from more than twenty countries. Ten Bulgarian experts in educational informatics, working under the RCEI projects, had UNESCO missions in Third World countries. In 1990, the RCEI officially joined the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (lEA) and began national studies to participate in two lEA projects, the Computers in Education Study and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In 1992, the RCEI was transformed into a Foundation for Research, Communication, Education and Informatics called "INCOBRA". A New Informatics Teaching Project Recendy Barnev et al. (1987) developed a new concept for teaching informatics at school which defined the informatics content, teaching objectives, and the methods of teaching at a methodological level. The aims of the teaching are to help students develop a general understanding about information processing, acquire knowledge and skills for applying informatics in society, and increase their interest towards informatics—especially among the students who are highly motivated. Mainly, the curriculum relies on hands-on experiences and covers the following topics: primary informatics concepts; tools for information processing; information processing service; methods of information processing; problems of communication; programming and human-computer interaction; basics of computer software; and the philosophical, social, ethical, economic, moral, and legal issues of informatics. Emphasizing hands-on experiences with computers to teach informatics represented an alternative to the existing practices that try to build a system of theoretical knowledge in informatics through more didactic methods. Accordingly, a new model for teaching informatics at school was announced in 1990 (Azalov & Assenova, 1991; Azalov, Todorova, & Assenova, 1991). A leading idea of the model was to define an obligatory minimum of the informatics knowledge and skills to be attained by students. The curriculum was divided into several, relatively independent learning modules. One of these meets the obligatory minimum and the rest are offered to students and

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teachers as optional modules (in programming, applications, and informatics modelling). A number of modules were also dedicated to special schools involved with advanced informatics teaching, such as mathematical and language high schools or professional schools in electronics. Of course, the model implies that informatics education will proceed selectively because, in exercising the module options, student or teacher selectivity will determine both the fields of study and the levels of difficulty that are chosen. But a great variety of informatics curricula might be developed with a common core that is expanded to meet the real needs. In Bulgaria, a major problem is still the creation and dissemination of educational software. Unfortunately, few professional organizations exist in the country that develop or distribute such software. The School of the 21st Century Project In the beginning of 1993, the National Center for Education and Science and the Foundation INCOBRA launched a national project entitled "School of the 21st Century." One of its subprojects is specifically oriented to the application of information technologies. Its main objective is to investigate how information technologies (IT) should be integrated in education in order to successfully face the demands of the next century. Still in its preparation stages, the subproject intends to identify a number of the critical features that should guarantee the success of future education with informatics. Thus, the subproject will seek to define the educational goals most amenable to extending IT application and to determine a set of educational software tools that are exemplary for their orientations toward the future of IT applications. Similarly of interest is the development of strategies and methods for integrating the use of multimedia software packages, systems and tools based on artificial intelligence, and electronic mail facilities as a means for communication and education in the new "global classroom". Defining a strategy for integrating IT into other school subjects and developing computer-based environments for those subjects (for example, mathematics, language instruction, and science) is also a goal. With regard to what the students should learn, this "School of the 21st Century" subproject also has an objective to define and itemize attainment targets so that the knowledge, skills, and understandings that students of different abilities and maturities are expected to attain at the end of each key stage have been specified in advance. A companion objective is to develop assessment instruments of student achievement that match the proposed attainment targets. The main emphasis in assessment will be put on measuring

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a Student's conceptual understanding, communication, performance, and problem-solving skills. In pursuit of these goals, it is expected that the 21st Century subproject will organize international seminars, workshops, and conferences on topics related to the integration of IT in education and organize experimental and implementation activities to be conducted by research teams in specialized classes (within the system of Bulgaria's Ministry of Education, Science and Culture). Moreover, in relation to training and qualifying educators and other specialists from Bulgaria and abroad, special attention will be paid to the possibilities for working jointly with related projects of the European Union, the lEA, UNDP, UNESCO, IFIP, and others.

The Situation in Reality Compulsory informatics teaching began relatively early in Bulgaria. But when that decision was made in 1986, and not surprisingly for that time, it was based upon too little information about the real conditions in the schools. In addition, the reliability of the many computers that were delivered to the secondary schools in the next few years was too low. And many teachers started teaching informatics after having had only short-term training courses if any at all. Other difficulties arose, too, from some decisions the Ministry of Education made—too soon and without enough information-about the status the new subject should have and the number of hours that should be allocated for it in the school curriculum (Azalov, Todorova, & Assenova, 1991). Until the INCOBRA Foundation (formerly RCEI) joined the lEA, no significant research on computers in education had been undertaken in Bulgaria. By participating in the 1992 stage of the lEA Computers in Education study, Bulgaria gained a great opportunity not only to draw up a realistic picture about the extent of IT's application in Bulgarian schools but also to compare its situation with the situations in other countries (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993). The data from this study, as well as from informal interviews and personal impressions, indicate that the real situation in Bulgaria's schools is not at a level one might expect it to be given the valuable research, interesting initiatives, and positive experiences that have occurred there in the last several years with computers in education^

For further information about the results of Bulgaria's 1992 Computers in Education study, contact the National Project Coordinator, Rumen Nikolov, whose address is given in footnote 1.

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Hardware For example, the presence of equipment in the schools of Bulgaria is relatively high. The median number of computers in computer-using schools is 17 or 18 for secondary schools; and 73% of the lower secondary and 97% of the upper secondary schools reported that their computers are used for instructional purposes. However, the quality of the existing hardware is far from optimal. The Bulgarian-made, 8-bit "Pravetz" computers are not as reliable as they should be. Only 3-4% of the secondary schools have 16-bit computers. Also, very few schools have local area networks, and access to Internet or Bitnet is still almost impossible. Not surprisingly then, the majority of computer teachers in the 1992 lEA study reported having problems related to hardware quality. Almost 70% of the secondary computer teachers cited computer limitations as a problem, and about 60% of them said they had insufficient peripherals available. Similar portions of computer teachers, 66% in lower secondary and 74% in upper secondary schools, reported maintenance difficulties. Software Although the availability of educational software is reported to be relatively high, about 65% of the computer coordinators in secondary schools labelled "insufficient instructional software" a major problem. The quality of the available educational software (or its usability on the available computers) is likewise poor. For instance, the types of software most commonly used in the schools is tutorial-based or drill and practice-based and has usually been pirated or written by teachers or by students and teachers. (The amount of legal software used at schools is quite low overall, but this situation is expected to change dramatically after the Law for Copyright and Author's Rights has been approved by the Parliament.) Finally, more than 90% of the upper secondary computer teachers and 50% of the lower secondary computer teachers have never used any programming language other than BASIC (Nikolova & Nikolov, 1992). Accordingly, the application of more specialized software such as simulation, statistics, authoring, item bank, gradebook, and communication packages has been slight. Curricula Computers are used mainly for the teaching of informatics. Their integration across the curriculum is realized only to a small extent, usually in the mathematics curriculum. Bulgaria experiences an urgent need to draw Bulgarian computer education closer to the European standards. Although

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Bulgarian students did fairly well on the Functional Information Technology Test (FITT) included in the 1992 lEA Computers in Education study (upper secondary students scored 62% correct; lower secondary students, 54% correct), indicators of the students' opportunities to learn were much lower. Upper secondary students had the opportunity in school to learn only about 47% of the knowledge tested by the FITT. For lower secondary students, the opportunities measure was less than half of that (22%). Aside from the schools, Bulgarian students have few sources for information about information technology. Only 5 to 7% of them reported having a computer in the home.

Suggestions for Further Policy Actions On the basis of all that has been said above, a number of suggestions could be made. Obviously, it will be beneficial to have educational standards available for informatics teaching once the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture completes their development. A strategy for supplying more upto-date hardware to the schools is also needed. At the national level, two more proposals have merit. For one thing, it would be good to develop a National IT in Education Program that takes into consideration the new economic and social circumstances in the country. For another thing, a network of specialized regional teacher training centers should be established. This would be compatible with the decentralization tendency and give teachers the means to refresh their computer knowledge, to share ideas and experiences, and to keep in touch with new trends in the field. The centers could also be sources for more educational software and for constant, competent assistance to the teachers. At the international level, it would be useful to establish an organizational framework within which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe could cooperate in their educational research and educational IT projects. The initiative proposed by the lEA, UNESCO, and OKI-EK (the National Institute of Public Education) in Budapest to establish a network of local institutions in the European countries which would conduct the lEA studies at the national level might be considered as a first step in this direction. Another promising initiative of the kind comes from UNESCO, the European Union, and the University of Twente and proposes that an international seminar be launched called "Teacher Education and Communication and Information Technologies: Issues and Experiences for Countries in Transition." Other

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international projects such as the conference on "Children in the Information Age" could be re-opened and extended as well.

References Angelov, A., et al. (1987, 1988). Informatics, 10th & 11th grade. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta (in Bulgarian). Azalov, P., & Assenova, P. (1991). "A new model for informatics education." Teaching Mathematics and Informatics, 3: 4-7 (in Bulgarian). Azalov, P., Todorova, M., & Assenova, P. (1991). "On some problems of informatics education in the secondary school." Teaching Mathematics and Informatics, 3:1-4 (in Bulgarian). Bamev, P., et al. (1987). "A project for a future oriented program in informatics for the unified secondary schools." Teaching Mathematics and Informatics, 1:1-5 (in Bulgarian). Bamev P., et al. (1987, 1988). Informatics, 10th & 11th grade. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta (in Bulgarian). Bamev P., et al. (1989, 1990). Informatics, 9th & 10th grade. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta (in Bulgarian). Law of People Education. (1991). Darj. Vestnik, N.86. Ministry of Education. (1987). A system for education in 8-12 grade of the unified secondary school. Sofia: Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Nikolov, R. (1983). Logo: An experimental textbook for 5th grade. Sofia: Research Group on Education (in Bulgarian). Nikolov, R., & Sendova, E. (1984). Language and mathematics: An experimental textbook for 6th grade. Sofia: Research Group on Education (in Bulgarian). Nikolov, R. & Sendova, E. (1985). "Informatics textbooks for beginners." Proceedings of the First International Conference "Children in the Information Age ", Vama, Bulgaria. Nikolov, R., & Sendova, E. (1988). "Can the teachers' creativity overcome the limited computer resources?" Education and Computing, 4(3). Nikolov, R., & Sendova, E. (1991). "Informatics for all school ages." Pp. 83-96 in the Proceedings of the Third European Logo Conference, Parma, Italy. Nikolova, I., & Nikolov, R. (1992). "Teacher training in informatics: Analyzing the problems." Proceedings of the IFIP Open Conference, "Informatics and Changes in Learning", June 711, Gmunden, Austria. Pelgrum, W.J., Janssen Reinen, I.A.M., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Schools, teachers, students and computers: A cross-national perspective. The Hague, Netherlands: (lEA) The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Pisarev, A. (1986). "The National Program of the People's Republic of Bulgaria for the instmction of computers in secondary schools." In Bl. Sendov and I. Stanchev (Eds.), Children in an information age-Tomorrow's problems today. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Sendov, Bl, et al. (1988, 1989, 1990, 1991). Mathematics and informatics (textbooks for 8th, 9th, 10th, & 11th grade). Sofia: Narodna Prosveta (in Bulgarian). Sendova, E., Nikolov, R., & Dicheva, D. (1989). "Mathematics and informatics: An attempt for integration in the secondary school curriculum." Pp. 155-166 in the Proceeding of the Third International Conference "Children in the Information Age", Sofia, Bulgaria. Stanchev, I. (1990). "The Bulgarian strategy of introducing new information technologies in education." In A. McDougall and C. Dowling (Eds.), Computers in education. NorthHolland: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

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White book of the Bulgarian education. (1992). Sofia: University Publishing House "Sw. Kl. Ochridski" (in Bulgarian).

The authors may be reached at the Foundation INCOBRA, BL. 5, Bui. Tzarigradsko Schosse 125, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria.

JIEF ZHANG

THE POLICIES OF CHINA FOR COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

New China, founded in 1949, established a centralized and hierarchical system of education. The most authoritative body, the State Educational Commission, makes all the educational decisions in the country, which subordinate units carry out. The spread of computers into China's school system occurred rapidly. In 1984, when only a few schools had experimented with any kind of computer use, the leader of China made a public remark about computers and children that created a popular campaign almost overnight. With little preparation, thousands of computers were put into the schools, and many now lay idle. Introducing computers into education has also tended to widen the gaps between the rich and poor areas and the cities and countrysides. These concerns and others are being addressed in a program that outlines goals and means for improvement by the year 2000.

China encompasses a vast territory in which quite protuberant imbalances of economic development exist, especially between cities and rural areas. The economic differences between the richest and the poorest areas in China can be very large. For example, the average per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1991 was 6675 yuan in Shanghai and the highest in China. The lowest per capita GDP in China that year, 890 yuan, belonged to the Guizhou province. The former statistic is 7.5 times the size of the latter. A comparison based upon consumption rates instead of GDP yields a difference 4.2 times larger for the Shanghai citizens. Average consumption for civilians in the Guizhou province totaled 455 yuan while in Shanghai, it was 1908 yuan. More than 1/4 of China's counties (520 out of 1903) are so poor they must get reinforcements from the state's finance, that is some counties in China have too little money to even support running themselves. The effects of such disparities on education are dramatic. In some areas, schools could not begin until dangerous houses had been settled, or there was not even the guarantee of a basic supply of electrical power. During recent years, thanks to the efforts exerted by governments of different levels to develop education in primary and secondary schools, unsafe classrooms and buildings all over the country have nearly been eliminated. 157 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 157-173. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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JIEF ZHANG

China's Education System Since the foundation of new China in 1949, the course of Chinese education has generally operated as established by the state (with the help of some collectives, national enterprises, and institutions). The modern system of education was formed after the government announced the Resolution on Reforms in the System of School Education in October of 1951. Administration The organization that administers all education in the Peoples' Republic of China is called the State Educational Commission (SEC). It was established in 1985 as a replacement for the former Ministry of Education, and it operates on four levels, state, provincial, and county or city. The most authoritative organ, the central SEC, oversees the work of all educational institutions in the country and has the responsibility to make all of the educational policy decisions for China. The other educational conmiissions or bureaus or offices must submit to the leading of the central SEC and are responsible for implementing state policies. The central, state-level SEC covers a wide scope of functions. It estabhshes the administrative regulations for general education and all general and specific educational policies for the country. To do so, it studies theories on education and sums up the experiences available from practice. It works out annual and long-term programs for the course of education, administration, and teacher training, and it coordinates and inspects their implementation. It also works out files of teaching plans and organizes the editing of teaching materials. Working together with other departments or institutions, SEC also determines the concrete policies, regulations, and developmental programs for vocational, technical, and adult education as well as education for the students of minority nationalities. All subordinate SEC organizations are charged to carry out the rules and regulations drawn up by higher SEC authorities at state, county, or provincial levels. It is the responsibility of the local SEC organs to supervise the circumstances of local education including expenditures, capital constructions, the administration of cadres and teachers, and developmental programs. A number of private sector schools have been initiated, too, in recent years. Thus, some educational organizations administer the state's different levels of educational bodies while others represent the bodies of enterprises and institutions that sponsor private schools. However~to provide unified guidance, the state administration is the authoritative organization in both

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cases. Even when schools are established not by the state but by other enterprises and social groups, they are subordinated to instructions given by a corresponding governmental administrative department on education. Financing Basically, the expenditures for all education in the Peoples' Republic of China are nationally financed. In 1991, the budgetary allocation for education represented 12.7% of the total budget of the country and totaled 48,218 billion yuan (equivalent to 9.64 billion U.S. dollars). The main sources of funding include allocations from different public funds; additional taxes paid by cities and counties for education; the money given by enterprises to establish their own primary and secondary schools; and the tax exemptions or reductions given to some industries that are owned by the schools. Yet, the present funding for education is in general too limited. It cannot meet the urgent needs of the government to supply talent for China's reform and modernization. Neither can it satisfy the most basic requirements for advancing fundamental developments in education. Looking forward to the future, the state plans drastic increases in its educational investments. It is estimated that by the year 2000, expenditures on education will reach the equivalence of 4% of the Gross Domestic Product. Currently, education funding represents about 2.4% of the GDP. Structure of the System The levels of schooling in China's educational system are shown in Figure 1. Of all those attending senior middle schools, more than half, 54%, were enrolled in either the technical and vocational or professional schools. Most of the technical and professional middle schools begin at the senior secondary level as the figure shows. However, there are a few schools of this type that begin at the junior secondary level. Gongdu schools, which conduct special education, are set up for young students who have broken the law or committed some kind of crime. Adult education covers all schools levels, primary, secondary, and higher.

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JIEF ZHANG

School Level

Grade

Age 20

15 Adult Education

14

University Education

19

13

18

12

17

11 10 9 8

1 1s

Vocational Senior Secondary

Technical Senior Secondary

General Senior Secondary

16 15

Vocational Junior Secondary

14 General Junior Secondary

13

7

12

6

11

5

10

4

Primary School

9

3

8

2

7 6 5 Infant Education

4 3

Figure 1. The System of School Education in China.

Rapid Growth in Size In keeping with China's goal to universalize primary education, 97.8% of all children aged 7 to 11 were enrolled in school in 1992. The enrollment rate for 12 to 15-year-olds was 67%, and for senior middle school students, it was 49.2%. Table 1 displays the total numbers of schools, teachers, and students for 1992 at the different levels of education. But the table does not reveal how very quickly Chinese education grew in that year. The scale of it has been extended without any limitations. When 21.8 million children became new primary school students in 1992, it represented a 5% increase in new students from the year before. At the same time, 14.9 million primary school students entered junior secondary schools, an increase of 4% in one year's time. And the number of students enrolled in senior secondary schools reached 4.3 million, a 2.4% increase from the former year.

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Table 1. Number of Schools, Teachers, and Enrollment in 1992 School Level

Schools

Teachers

Students

Infant School

172,506

815,000

24,282,100

Primary School

712,973

5,526,500

122,012,800

69,171 14,850 1,593 8,267 4,392 3,903 95

2,565,000 576,100 32,000 216,000 148,600 235,100 1,600

40,659,100 7,048,900 563,800 2,863,800 1,556,000 2,408,400 4,900

102,271

3,774,400

55,104,900

General University

1,053

387,600

2,184,400

Special Education

1,077

18,500

129,500

453,195

381,500

49,112,100

Secondary School Junior general Senior general Junior vocational Senior vocational Technical Middle professional Gongdu Total

Adult Education

Adult and general higher education expanded as well. The number of new students enrolled in higher education in 1992 was 754,200, an increase of 22% from 1991. Schools for adults received .6 million new students that year, a 2% increase in one year's time. The fastest-growing types of adult education in China are television university, correspondence schools, professional training schools, and programs for literacy education. But as a matter of fact, the task on education that China faces now is quite arduous. At least 180 million people are illiterates. Many of them are young and adults of robust years under the age of 45. Moreover, at least 5 million children of school age have been obliged to discontinue their studies because their families cannot afford to supply them with enough money for school. These situations do not fit with national goals to create the quality labor force thought necessary for the country's social and economic development.

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The Initial Years of Computer Use History of Development Spontaneous exploration (1978-1981) characterized the first of four main stages of development in China's experience with computers in education. Beginning in 1978, it marks the period during which the first general use of computers occurred in any of the country's primary or secondary schools. Through 1981, school activities related to computers were mainly carried out by extracurricular groups, either inside or outside of the schools. However, only a minimal number of schools were involved in such explorations. According to the 1989 TEA Computers in Education study, of all the senior secondary schools that began some kind of computer education before 1989, less than 1% of them had organized any after-school activities by 1980 for working on computers or learning the BASIC language (Zhang, 1993). An organized experiment (1982-1983) began in the 1982-83 school year when the Ministry of Education (now the SEC) chose five secondary schools in which to conduct trial programs of an optional computer education course. The schools selected were attached to China's five most famous universities. With the help of the teachers and equipment in the respective universities, these schools probed into and worked out initial teaching aims, course content, machine allocations, educational materials, and teacher training for optional courses in computer education. In 1983, the former Ministry of Education specified a teaching program for optional computer courses based upon a summing up of the experiences from the five school experiments. The program focussed on the simple working principles of computers and the BASIC programming language. Scheduled for a period of 45 to 60 lesson hours, at least one third of them were to be devoted to practicing operations. During the same time, many central and local governments had begun to purchase computers for schools. Thus by the end of 1983, some senior secondary schools in the country were already able to offer an optional course in computer education. A great upsurge in computers in education (1984-1986) began when Dengxiao Ping, the highest leader in China at the time, uttered the words that added a great dynamic to the development of the newly-rising computer education. After watching a performance with computers by the children from Shanghai Children's Palace^ he said, "The spread of [the] computer must be '

Shanghai Children's Palace is one of the centers for children's actions in Shanjghai. Children can sing, dance, learn about computers, and things like this, in here. Most of the cities in China have such a center.

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from children." What succeeded Dengxiao Ping's pronouncement was a sudden great leap in educational goals and activities that moved computers from being merely the focal point of experiment and testing in some schools to a phase of widespread notice. The campaign for computer education began at this point when thousands of schools started to use computer-based instruction and to offer optional courses for computer education. Of all the senior secondary schools that started using computers in the 1980s, 1/4 of them began doing so during this 2-year period (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991; Zhang, 1993). For the purposes of improving computer education and equipment, the fundings from central and local governments and other sources (such as the Chinese Foundation in Hong Kong) jumped to a total of 100 million yuan (20 million U.S. dollars). Also in 1984 and 1986, to better do the work of implementing computers in the schools, the former Ministry of Education held a second and then a third working conference on computers and education. At the 1986 conference, some guiding principles were identified for developing computer education in China's secondary schools. It was judged very important to proceed from reality and to pay great attention to practical results; to work hard at taking initiative while being reliable; and to extend operations step-by-step as suggested by whatever the findings from various focal tests would reveal. With these principles in mind, the conference body proposed three long-range goals. One was to add some content about software applications (such as word processors and databases) to teacher training programs. Another was to encourage improvement in the utilization ratio of the computer equipment already present in the schools. Finally, it was resolved to extend computer use and education to the junior secondary level as soon as it became clear that the original fruits of efforts in the senior secondary schools had been consolidated. Adjustment and restricted development (1987-1992). After the influx of computers to the schools in the middle 1980s, China's governmental bodies, under the circumstances of austere economy, were forced to cut off their funding for a period of time. This dealt a shock to the cause, and computers in education seemed to fall back to a low stage again. Nevertheless, it could not be said that all progress halted because promotion was made by several government-supported activities. For example, in 1987, the National Centre for Computer Education Research in Secondary Schools was set up to study, organize, and recommend adjustments in the introduction of computers in education. In the same year, the research for a project named "Chinese Computers for Education" was conducted and then popularized by five important organs of the state, SEC, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Electronic Industry, the State Science and Technology

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Commission, and the State Science and Technology Association. The end result of the project was that many computers for use by primary and secondary school students had been produced in China from 1987 to 1991. At present, this kind of machines has been eliminated. Meanwhile, too, regarding it as an important national project, the Chinese government managed to invest a fair amount (about 400,000 in U.S. dollars) to help develop educational software and to make arrangements for the evaluation of teaching software. The organization established to accomplish the evaluation task, the National Assessment Committee for Educational Software, has compared hundreds of software packages since it was formed. These efforts effectively laid a solid foundation for studying, developing, appraising, managing, and popularizing educational software for 8-bit computers in primary and secondary schools. (No software development was undertaken for 86286 and 86386 processors.) Near the end of this period, SEC held the fourth working conference on computers in education, and it seemed to signify a very great turning point. People at the conference had opportunities to summarize the recent experiences of primary and secondary schools with computers, to discuss their urgent problems, and to clarify some principles for further development. After the conference, the course of computers in education had reached a new healthy and harmonious stage. Current Status In little more than ten years' time, computers in Chinese primary and secondary schools have grown out of nothing to a presence of large scale. The number of professional and part-time computer teachers or administrators exceeds 20,000, and at least 100,000 computers are owned by some 20,000 schools. The computers are used for various organized activities in school such as teaching pupils some computer knowledge and operational skills; helping teachers as an aid to demonstration; helping pupils study in their classes (with drill and practice activities); and expanding students' computer experiences via after-class access to tutorials, drill and practice programs, and educational games. Computers as a separate subject. Generally, information technology as a separate course is given at the first or second grade of senior high school. It may be compulsory or optional, usually for a total of 40 teaching hours (2 hours once a week). In the economically well-developed areas of certain cities, some secondary schools have popularized computer education. In fact.

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many have elected to make their computer courses compulsory. Course content in these cases generally includes an introduction to computer applications, some computer language such as BASIC, and a computer literacy component~for example, one that considers the effects of computers on society and the role of computers as a helpful tool for information processing. However, if information technology is taught as a part of some other subject, such as a course on labor and technology, the teaching hours are rather different. This type of course often takes place at junior high schools, and applications are usually emphasized. There are no unified, nationwide examinations on information technology, but there are unified examinations in some cities or some provinces such as Shanghai and GuangXi. Students who pass them can obtain a certification. Computers in other subjects. Almost no other existing subject in China's general high schools includes computers as an integrated component. Even though many schools try to do this, it is quite difficult for China to integrate computers with existing subjects because few good software packages for teaching and learning are available. The quality of software for computerassisted instruction (CAI) is very low. Computer-Related Issues In common with most countries, China faces the conventional problems relating to computers in education. Too little funding, the low quality of software, and insufficient teacher training represent continuing obstacles to improving the use of computers in education. In addition, some other problems are felt particularly sorely in China. Unequal opportunities. Just as it occurred with some other educational technologies, the beginnings of computer use in China's schools had the effect of widening the educational gaps between the poor and the rich and the countrysides and the cities. On the one hand, computer use in the schools has been in effect for a long time in the big cities and in the more developed coastal areas of the country. Administrative units in most of those areas have already popularized computer education. Schools in the poorer areas, on the other hand, have usually been fighting against more conventional difficulties. In these areas, the best efforts of administrators can be devoted to getting classrooms, desks, chairs, and basic teaching materials.

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Even schools in the same area or city may experience large gaps among them. Key schools^ of different levels were given priority either to get special funding to buy computers or to get computers directly allocated by the local administrations in charge of education. Some other schools if their economy was in good condition could buy computers themselves without outside assistance. Therefore, it is possible that some schools have tens of computers or several laboratories full of computers. Other schools have not even a single computer, but there is no one to listen to their complaints. How to make full use of the new information technology and solve this increasingly acute contradiction of unbalanced development has become an urgent task for Chinese educational workers. Idle computers. China is still a poor country at present. The yearly funds for education are quite hard up. That makes it even more regretful to see so many of the few computers the schools have been able to acquire go virtually unused. Many sit completely idle or are only in use for extracurricular activities. A number of schools use computers only to teach languages. Teachers who wish to use computers find it very hard to get the software they need. (Some develop their own substitutes.) Other teachers—usually those who do not know about computers—care nothing about using them in their teaching. The public cannot help but ask what on earth is the function of the computer in education. It is no doubt that this embarrassing situation is connected to the country's policies and instructions on computers in education. Barely more than three to four years passed between the early 1980s, when computers had first been placed in some of China's schools, and the time they were drastically popularized during 1985. This quick start concealed a great crisis. At the time computers were suddenly poured into primary and secondary schools, the policymakers and administrators in charge of education had little or no preparation for handling the great consuming tide. Instructions for implementation and detailed plans based upon scientific research and testing were not available. And among most teachers no talk of the computer's usefulness preceded its arrival. Many of the teachers knew nothing about computers. Under those circumstances, people turned to the viewpoints of foreign scholars for guidance, most of whom emphasized programming as the crucial computer culture. Greatly influenced by this view, many people naively thought computer education stood as a symbol of modernization if it Schools identified in China as "key schools" are provided with the best resources available. For example, they receive the best teachers and equipment.

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consisted of teaching a programming language such as BASIC. Today, that situation has improved to some degree, but the problem has not been solved thoroughly. If the concept of what constitutes the appropriate content of computer education can be changed further with time, part of the problem of too much idle computer time should be remedied as well.

Current Trends in the Educational Use of Computers Major Funding Adjustments toward Education Now that basic teaching facilities have been settled throughout most of the country, the emphasis for the future will be turned toward improving teaching conditions and quality. With plans for future increases, the country is already investing more in education. This year's budget included a 9.8% rise over the budget for the prior year. In 1991, funding for education equaled 12.7% of China's national budget. By the time the period of China's Eighth Five-Year Plan begins in 1989, it is hoped that education will command 15% of the country's total budget. More funding for education in general will make it possible to increase investments on computers in education by a wide margin. To guarantee advances in computer use, SEC proclaimed in writing that the local governments and educational administrative units of different levels, according to their various financial situations, must allocate a special sum for such purposes. They were also encouraged to collect additional funds from society in various ways. With the functions of computers continuing to grow as their prices continue to decrease, more and more computers will certainly be brought into China's schools. Computers as a Major Priority in Education People have begun to realize that the computer, as a basic core of modern science and technology, exerts far-reaching influences on our society. To place the Chinese nation in due position in the world's field of advanced science and technology, as well as within an arena of fierce global competition, the uses of computers in Chinese education must be strengthened, and many talents must be cultivated. A related realization has been that computers can be important tools with which to carry on educational reform. In light of these beliefs, is it considered of great significance to continue changing people's conceptions about the computer's

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uses in education, to promote the reform of teaching and administrative procedures with regard to computers, and to improve the educational quahty and benefits that can be derived from their use. To work on these goals, SEC set up a "leading group" for computers in education in primary and secondary schools, headed by a deputy director of SEC. The task specified for the leading group was to develop a series of principles and policies that will guide and harmonize the whole country's program for computers in education. SEC furthermore declared 1993 the "propaganda and spread year of computer knowledge education" and launched a series of activities to accompany it. Seminars were held to study the country's policies on computers in education and allow representatives from primary and secondary schools to communicate their experiences. In addition to teachers and officials from educational administrative agencies at different levels, many experts and some managers of computer corporations took part in the seminars. To help eliminate people's mystifying perceptions about the computer, SEC worked with China's Central Television Station and the China Computer Newspaper to jointly sponsor a television program, the "All China TV Contest on Basic Computer Knowledge." It was also decided to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the National Research Centre for Primary and Secondary Schools' Computer Education with exhibits of educational products for computers shown in different provinces and cities all over the country. Finally, some training-based and laboratory centers were set up by SEC during this time for primary and secondary schools to use. Now, administrative units of cities and provinces one after another have begun to form local "leading groups" of their own, with SEC's guidance, to develop policies and increase investments. For example, the government of one province decided to invest more than 10 million yuan to found a centre for educational software development. Leaders of another, relatively poor province decided to increase their funding for the cause by several million yuan. In one province, a deputy governor who took charge of the work himself planned to invest more than 100 million yuan in computer purchases for primary and secondary schools. Measures such as these have helped greatly to create external conditions that will be favorable to the development of computer use in China's primary and secondary schools. Multiple Policies to Develop Computer Use The 1986 conference on computers in education specified certain principles for the planners of Chinese education to pursue in the decade of the 1990s. Its participants had emphasized proceeding from reality, paying

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attention to practical results, working carefully but energetically to promote computer use in the schools, and consolidating their results to create emphatic plans. At least two implications followed from these principles. One was to actively develop favorable conditions for computer use in the schools so as to put forward the progress of science and technology. The other was to flexibly develop those conditions in order to adjust for the poverty and economic imbalances in the country. To promote harmonious developments along these lines, SEC planned a group of programs and projects. The five major ones are described below. •

The "Eight Years Development Program for Primary and Secondary Schools' Computer Education (1993-2000)" will identify standards of benefit, scale, and timing for the uses of computers in primary and secondary schools; clarify aims for using computer-assisted and computer-managed instruction; and study the possible means for exploiting educational software and establishing teacher-training systems. As part of this plan, SEC will also require provinces and cities to sponsor computer education programs for the local primary and secondary schools, insofar as their economic conditions allow.

•

A "Guiding Principle for Primary and Secondary Schools' Computer Curriculum" will be issued by SEC that describes how to edit the textbooks and carry out the teaching of computer-related subjects. The substance of the guiding principle is to formulate one program with various textbooks. Provinces and cities in good condition may also organize to edit different kinds of teaching materials and textbooks according to the guiding principle and their own current needs.

•

A set of "Instructional Suggestions on Facilities" will also be issued by SEC to encourage the development of relatively common hardware environments in the schools. This should increase the convenience with which schools can choose equipment, software, teaching materials, and teacher training methods. To accommodate economic disparities, the suggestions will offer alternate standards for allocation, recommending the more advanced microcomputers primarily for the schools in good economic condition. (It is expected that inter-classroom and inter-school computer networks can gradually become a reality and eventually link to other networks in the society.)

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•

A "Guiding Program on Training Teachers" will require that the educational administrative units for primary and secondary schools establish complete and detailed plans for cultivating and training computer teachers, CAI teachers, educational administrators, and computer laboratory administrators. Training approaches are to include preservice occupation training, inservice training, and key teacher training. In general, the content of the training should impart a professional knowledge of software and hardware, of how to use CAI software in the classroom, and of how to develop one's own demonstration software for the classroom. To guarantee a source for the recruitment of computer teachers and administrators, computer education should be set up as a major program in at least a few universities or colleges, but the courses that teach methods for applying computers in various classroom contexts must be offered in all such kinds of schools.

•

Finally, a "Project on Developing Teaching Software" has been launched to improve the software resources for both compulsory and optional subjects in primary and secondary schools. It enjoins some of the local units in good economic condition to exert a great effort along with SEC to sponsor software development. To examine the value of the software to be used, an evaluation committee was formed, and it has been stipulated in explicit terms that every software program mustfirst have permission from this committee before it can bedistributed in China's schools.

Computer Use with Younger Students Before 1985, only some primary schools in various cities or provinces had initiated any form of computer education. But by now, many primary schools (and even several kindergartens) have used computers to carry out some kind of educational activities. In general, computer education at the primary school level is set up for students in the 4th or 5th grade, mainly in the form of an extracurricular group, and consists of learning about the BASIC or LOGO programming language. However, some primary schools are now using CAI software in an attempt to determine how it can contribute to teaching mathematics and the Chinese language efficiently. Rises in the Domestic Computer Market At present, most Chinese families are just going forward from the step of simply having adequate food and clothing to the step of consuming. Once they have been able to buy televisions, refrigerators, and videorecorders,

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ordinary civilians begin to turn their eyes toward those domestic computers which can be operated by both adults and children. When an upsurge of domestic purchases appeared in 1993, the computers of famous brands sold out in a very short time. Then the computers produced by other corporations (mostly with 16- or 32-bit processors) were suddenly and simultaneously in great demand. Many factories could not meet the demand because their corporations had underestimated the level of consumer interest that was developing. The introduction of computers into Chinese homes at such a high speed has greatly influenced not only primary and secondary schools with regard to computer use but all parts of the country's educational system. It is worth mentioning that many corporations, attracted by the great potential in the market for domestic and school computers, have begun to invest in software development. Factors such as these will surely facilitate the turning over of a new page in China's development of educational computer use.

Future Policy Intentions The "Eight Years Development Program for Primary and Secondary Schools' Computer Education (1993-2000)" constitutes China's authoritative plan for the development of computers in education in the future. The final revisions of the program are still in progress, in part because the uses of computers in China's schools are developing so rapidly. But the expectation is for the eight-year program to define a series of goals, some of which will specify alternative sets of criteria for success based upon the level of economic development in an area. In the descriptions of the proposed goals given below, the objectives for areas of average economic development are cited first, and the alternative objectives for highly developed and poorly developed areas are given in parentheses. Goals for the Year 2000 Equipment. By the year 2000, 80% of all the secondary schools in areas with moderate economic development should have at least one computer available for instructional use. (In highly developed areas, the goal is 100%; in poorly developed areas, 50%.) By the same deadline, 50% of the secondary schools in moderately developed areas must have installed one (or several) computer classrooms. (The portion of secondary schools with a computer

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classroom should be 90% in highly developed and 20% in poorly developed areas.) Similar but less stringent goals are set for primary schools. The citizens in the richest areas will be encouraged to try their best to achieve or even exceed the goals set for their areas. In addition, they can be encouraged to carry out experiments with inter-area computer networks and multimedia teaching systems. Curriculum. In the less advantaged areas, relatively simple optional computer courses and extracurricular activities with computers should be offered as far as possible in all general secondary schools by the year 2000. (In the areas with the best economic development, compulsory computer courses and more advanced optional computer courses should be offered in all general secondary schools. In the schools that have no computers or very few computers, knowledge will have to be popularized in varying degrees.) Computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Educational administrative units in different provinces and cities must actively help to carry out experiments and research on CAI and to set up a number of schools to experiment with computer-based education. By the end of the century, a certain systematic CAI must be implemented in the main subjects of more than 50% of the primary and secondary schools in moderately developed areas. (In the highest economically developed areas, nearly all of the schools will be expected to have implemented CAI in main subjects; and 20-30% of the poorest schools should have done so.) Administration. To accomplish the modernization of instructional management, two things must happen. Local general education offices must install or improve their computer-based management systems, and a network between the central SEC and subordinate offices must be realized. By the year 2000, systems of computer-based management should also be established in the administrative units for about 50% of the primary and secondary schools in areas with moderate economic development. (In the economically advantaged areas, all secondary schools and 80% of the primary schools should have brought computer-based management into effect by the year 2000. The goal for poorly developed areas will be the same as for moderately developed areas.)

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Necessary Support for the Program A number of measures have been identified as the most crucial and urgent toward guaranteeing that the actions of the "Eight Years Development Program" get implemented. Although the work can be accomplished in stages over time, people's understandings of computer education must be improved, and the leadership functions of the local educational administrative units must be strengthened. Obviously, the special funding required for computers in education must also be ensured and its efficient use promoted. With regard to the teaching process, it is essential to direct great efforts toward improving the quality of computer teachers-for one thing, by quickening the tempo of training teachers. Moreover, it is also necessary to advance the ways of organizing, developing, and exploiting educational software in China if computer-based activities are to be carried out extensively and smoothly in the primary and secondary schools. Further study of the theory and practice of computers in education should provide the information needed to give teachers good instructions about how to use computer-based education effectively in their classrooms.

References China Education Newspaper. (1993). The educational statistics communique for 1992 (March 15, 1993). Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, T. (1991). The use of computers in education worldwide. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press. Zhang, J. (1993). "China's application of computers in the primary and secondary school." Chinese Journal of Education Research (Feb).

Mr. Jief Zhang is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Technology of the Central Institute for Educational Research, Bei-San-Huan-Zhou-Lu 46, 100088, Beijing, P.R. China.

SERGE POUTS-LAJUS, ERIC BARCHECHATH, AND NOELLE BARRE

NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FRENCH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The French educational system is traditionally highly centralized, even though the role of local authorities (departments and regions) tends to grow rapidly. The main orientation of the system's education technology policy is decided by the Ministry of Education, with local authorities being in charge of practical implementation. Typical examples of such policy are the Computing for All Plan begun in 1985-86 and Mixed Licenses in 1988. Current practices are influenced by the willingness to stick to technology evolution and to use standardized software such as word processors, spreadsheets, or multimedia applications. The issue of educational technology's rationale as a learning object or as a tool for learning is central to the dynamic of technology dissemination throughout the French educational system. In practice, the two rationales have been applied but only one has been valorized in the discourses.

The French Educational System Overview The French educational system is a unitary and centralized system. Local educational authorities include towns, departments, and regions (groups of departments). However, although the roles of local communities and of the private sector tend to grow, the state continues to play a determining role in the organization and functioning of the system. Education between the ages of 6 and 16 is compulsory for French and foreign children residing in France. Its objective is to provide a basic egalitarian and nonreligious training that will neglect no pupil, regardless of his or her social or geographical background and origins. Pupils are distributed in educational establishments in classes or divisions that correspond to the groups of pupils who will receive the same level of schooling during a school year. Within each division, teachers organize their classes according to individual learning rhythms (thanks to the principles of 175 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 175-196. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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"differentiated pedagogy") and within the framework of strict curricula that are defined on the national level. Pupils are graded, and their learning level is regularly assessed. In principle, each teacher is the master of the pedagogy in his or her own division. From a general point of view, the French educational system is deeply determined by the role of the national government. Main strategic decisions, whether administrative, financial, or educational, are taken by the state Ministry of Education (or MEN for "Ministere de I'Education Nationale"). This characteristic explains the high number of times a "general reform of the educational system" occurred in the last twenty years. However, in the framework of the decentralization law of 1983, the relations between the state and local communities in the matter of education changed deeply. A system of shared responsibilities was instituted, and some of the attributions formerly belonging to the Ministry of Education were delegated to the regions. Yet the role of the state remains primordial—for example, concerning the curriculum and the recruitment of teachers. On the other hand, regions are now free to elaborate their own policies of technology equipment. Size and Structure Two education systems coexist in France: state education, which is nondenominational and free, and private education, which is not free and can be either denominational or non-denominational. About 90% of the private schools are controlled by the Catholic Church and, in the same proportion, linked with the state by an association contract. In the state sector, tuition is free, and schoolbooks are leased each year to the pupils until the 4th form, which is the last year of middle school. The supply of other school stationary is payable by the parents. Tables 1 and 2 list the numbers of schools, teaching positions, and students that were in the educational system in 1991. As the tables also show, private educational establishments account for approximately 20% of the total secondary system and 15% of the elementary system. France is a leading country in the numbers of children who attend preschools. In 1990, 35% of two-year-old children and 99% of three-year-old children were provided with schooling.

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Table 1. Total Number of Educational Establishments and Teaching Positions by School Level and Percent in State (vs. Private) Sector, 1991 Establishments School Level

Total Number

Teaching Positions

Percent in State Sector

Total Number

Percent in State Sector

Pre-primary

18,850

97.8

Primary

44,131

86.6

340,454

87.6

Secondary

11,325

65.8

422,403

80.5

Grand Total (N)

74,306

86.3 (64,118)

not available

762,857

83.7 (638,239)

Note: Of the 7455 secondary schools in the state sector, about 65% are 1st. cycle middle schools. SUghtiy more than half of the remaining schools are 2nd. cycle technical schools and sHghtiy less than half are general education upper schools.

Table 2. Total Number of Pupils by School Level and Percent in State (vs. Private) Sector, 1991 School Level

Total Number

Percent in State Sector

Pre-primary

2,555,684

87.7

Primary

4,083,591

85.1

3,255,661 56,247 121,057

80.0 86.0 98.0

1st.

Cycle secondary Middle Pre-training Special education

3,432,965 2nd. Cycle secondary Technical General education upper

696,747 1,570,976

76.7 79.2

2,267,723 Grand Total

12,339,963

83.2

As a rule, children leave primary school at the age of 11 and attend the 1st cycle of secondary education between the ages of 11 and 15. Nevertheless, a large proportion of children do not follow this rule as a result of having been held back one or several years. In 1990, around 30% of all the pupils entering

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the 1st form in middle schools (or "colleges") were older than 11 years. At the conclusion of 2nd form, certain pupils leave the common-core syllabus of education and are guided towards a technical school whose purpose is to provide a professional qualification that combines general and technical training. In 1970, 27% of the middle school students were guided towards technical schools compared to less than 17% today. Figure 1 diagrams the structure of the present French educational system. Upper schools (or "lycees") provide the 5th, 6th, and 7th forms for students, typically aged 15 to 18, who continue with the common-core syllabus. The Education Budget The yearly expenditure for education multiplied more than four times between 1975 and 1990\ which corresponds to a growth slightly lower than the growth of the Gross Domestic Project (GDP). In 1990, the education expenditure was estimated to be 414.6 thousand million francs (or approximately 76.1 billion in 1990 U.S. dollars)^ and was equal to 6.39% of the GDP.

' ^

The increase was very high in 1981 and 1982. From 1985 to 1989, the education expenditure increased less fast than the GDP, but this trend reversed again in 1990. The comparison of French francs to U.S. dollars in this discussion is based upon the use of three exchange rates. In 1990, the average rate was .1836; in 1987, it was .1663; and in 1982, .1520.

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6

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Figure 2 identifies the sources of educational financing as well as how the global education budget is subdivided. In 1991, educational funding from the state, which forms the budget of the Ministry of National Education, totaled 247.8 thousand million francs (approximately 45.5 billion in 1990 U.S. dollars). Staff expenditure accounts for 91.9% of the Ministry budget. Since the 1983 decentralization act, a significant part of the expenditure was transferred to departments and regions. The budget of the Ministry of National Education represents about 17% of the state's general budget; and, in 1990, it grew by 8.6% while the state's overall budget grew less strongly at 7.9%. Distribution of Global Budget

Secondary education 33.6%

Higher education 11.5%

Sources of Funding

Primary education 23.1%

School meals/boarding Extra curricular training 8.3% 10.9%

Figure 2. Distribution and Sources of the National Education Budget, 1990.

Developments in Educational Computing from 1970 to 1987 58 Upper Schools (1970-1979) The first national experiment to introduce computing in upper schools was launched in 1970. The experiment was turned towards using the computer not as an end in itself~and it was decided not to create a body of teachers specialized in computing~but as a tool that would allow pupils to approach the concrete problems arising in traditional disciplines in a new light, thanks to different methods of reasoning and analysis. The operation was organized around three axes: training the teachers of different disciplines, defining and introducing the equipment in the participating establishments, and developing

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an educational method that could be adapted to the implementation of the technological resources. A relatively rustic equipment configuration, whose technology revealed a slight delay in comparison with the computers used in industry, was selected for the project. It consisted of one minicomputer connected to 8 workstations operating on a time-sharing basis. The machines, T1600 by Telemecanique and MITRA 15 by CII, were manufactured in France. The operation of equipping the upper schools with computer hardware took place between 1972 and 1973, only two years after the teachers began training in computing. On the conclusion of this phase, 58 minicomputers had been installed in 58 schools, representing about 500 workstations. Hence, the project is known nowadays as 58 Upper Schools. From 1980 to 1984 In December 1978, the Ministry of Industry proposed that the Ministry of National Education could finance a plan to equip many more upper schools with microcomputers. Over a 6-year period, 10,000 microcomputers were to be installed in secondary education establishments with the help of teams of teachers who had been trained in the framework of the 58 Upper Schools experiment. Training of teachers would resume later, following 2-3 years of equipment provision, at a deeper and broader level than before. The technological choice was thus clearly made for microcomputing. The models selected for the project, 8-bit microcomputers equipped with the Z80 microprocessor, were essentially the ones presented by French manufacturers who no longer exist today: Micral (bought back by Bull); Logabax (bought back by Olivetti); and Leanord (bought back by Siemens). The launch of this operation, called the 10,000 Micro Plan, was an opportunity to revive the contradictory debate on computing as a tool vs. computing as an object and computing as a discipline vs. computing at the service of disciplines. On the one hand, familiarizing pupils with computing had thus far been accomplished through existing disciplines (and the individualization made possible by computer interactivity recommended it as an effective supporting aid for problem pupils). On the other hand, the need for computer engineers raised the question of introducing computer science as its own discipline and constituting a body of computer science teachers. The interest in computer-assisted instruction was growing in parallel with the attraction to computing as a technique. In November 1983, the spread of computing in the schools passed a new mark when the Minister of National Education, Alain Savary, declared that the 100,000 Micros operation had begun. This meant that by 1988, one hundred thousand microcomputers would be present in educational

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establishments and 100,000 teachers would have been trained to use them. The equipping of upper schools was to be completed in 1986 and middle schools in 1988. Training in educational computing was massively relaunched in 1981. In 1982, 11 university training centers received 170 upper school teachers, among them 40 technical school teachers, for a long-term training of one year. The next year, these same teachers were expected in turn to give 100 hours of training courses to 350 teachers, and about 50 middle school teachers were among this second-year group. In 1984, 27 university centers trained 500 teachers throughout the school year who would become teacher trainers in educational technology. During the 1983-1984 school year, 20,000 teachers were given 1-2 week sessions of sensibilization training and 25,000 the next year. These training courses accounted for a budget of 50 million francs (7.6 million in 1982 U.S. dollars) in 1981-1982. The budget for the next year was 4 times larger (200 million francs) and nearly 5 times larger (240 million francs) by the following year. The Computing for All Plan (1985-1986) Launched in a very spectacular manner at the beginning of 1985, the Computing for All Plan ("Informatique pour Tous") was by far the most significant event of the decade. This plan can be considered as the culmination of all the preceding events that led to it. Yet nearly 10 years later, it is still not easy to draw lessons from it. Unlike similar operations that were launched in other European countries, either before or afterward, the French plan distinguished itself by its large scale, the initial enthusiasm it aroused, and by the disenchantment in which it seems to have ended. The Computing for All Plan benefited from a vast mobilization of many people including manufacturers, publishers, administrative offices (such as the offices of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of National Education), and the school teachers who responded positively to the message of support for computing sent by the government. The total budget for the plan was 1,890 million francs (314.3 million in 1987 U.S. dollars) with 21% of the total to be taken from the 1985 national education budget and 79% being financed in the form of leasing by the Telecoms (58%) and the Industrial Funds for Modernization (21%). Hardware. During the whole year of 1984, the departments of the Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius, and of the Minister of National Education, JeanPierre Chevenement, studied hardware propositions from manufacturers. After the Macintosh solution was rejected and the principle of selecting the offer of French manufacturers was accepted, two technical standards remained in the eligibility lists, an "8-bits" standard (microprocessor 6809

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supported by Thomson with its two models TO7-70 and M05) and a "16bits" standard (supported by the manufacturers of PC-compatibles, Leanord, Goupil, and Logabax). Whichever technical solutions were chosen had to take into consideration the great disparities among educational establishments. They had to meet the needs of the small country schools with only a handful of pupils as well as large Parisian upper schools with several thousand pupils. For the former, a single home-type micro would suffice; for the latter, the technical solutions had to be based on the PC and MS-DOS standards. Therefore, a hybrid solution was adopted for equipping educational establishments, one that combined the best of the two technical standards into a local network, the Nanoreseau. Software. An overall allocation of 203 million francs (33.75 million in 1987 U.S. dollars) had been devoted to the purchase of software products for the project. Two types of programs were studied, one corresponding to the 8bits Thomson standard, the other to the 16-bits PC-MSDOS format. But the problem of selecting software was a tricky one. On the one hand, the Ministry insisted on respecting the principle of freedom of educational choice for teachers and wanted that principle to apply to educational software in the same way as it applied to school textbooks. On the other hand, the innovative nature of the technical support made it difficult for educational teams to make up their minds (--How to choose what one doesn't know?), therefore obliging the Ministry to assist and guide the choices of the educational establishments. It was decided to divide the process into two phases. A first batch of software packages was selected, corresponding to different education levels and containing between 20 and 30 different programs. The appropriate package was delivered to each establishment. A second batch of nearly 700 software products was constituted and presented to the schools in the form of a catalogue. Each establishment had a credit in this catalogue which allowed it to order software freely and to complete its equipment according to its needs. The selected programs were of various types. For the most part, they were "small" programs related to a discipline and a school level. Most of the time, they contained a series of short exercises designed for individual use. In the primary schools, two software were very successful and dominated the practice for several years since 1985. ELMO, a French software tool, is used for improving the quality of silent reading in terms of understanding and speed; and the famous programming language LOGO, despite many experiments before 1984, only met an opportunity for wide dissemination with this project. However, the success and use of LOGO decreased in later years, and it is no more a common tool for education in France. Criticism and evaluation. The Computing for All Plan took place in an atmosphere of enthusiasm that is now forgotten. From 1986 on, numerous criticisms arose. For example, computer specialists criticized the choice of a standard different from PC and MS-DOS. Some of these criticisms were

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finally repeated by the omnipotent General Inspectorate, whose advice had hardly been sought during the operation. One thing the General Inspectorate expressed concern about was the potential of the educational side of the project if more advanced techniques for computer use were not developed to keep teachers and students from becoming discouraged: "The weakness of educational uses, most of the time dull and repetitive, might cause the original fad to fall off if an intellectual commitment matching the financial means implemented is not encouraged." It seems that the negative image of the Computing for All Plan, which still prevails today within and outside the Ministry of National Education, was excessive. It would be more fair to consider that the preeminent objective of the plan had been to sensitize the educational environment to computer technology, and that this objective had been properly reached. In the years following 1986, the Ministry conducted several field investigations that led to a more qualified assessment of the plan. Private Education (1987) Having been cast to one side by the Computing for All Plan, private education contractually bound to the state received in 1987 a grant worth 300 million francs (55.1 million U.S. dollars) in the form of computer equipment. True to its liberal doctrine, the Ministry left the establishments free to choose their own hardware standards and programs; and the establishments chose different solutions according to their specific conditions. Many of them, already equipped with Apple lis, preferred to stick to this standard and chose the Apple II-GS because of its compatibility with the Apple II as well as its very large software library. Other establishments, considering the importance of the installed base, chose the Nanoreseau standard so as to take advantage of the existing programs and of the programs that would be developed by publishers. A third category of establishments opted for the MS-DOS standard. The resulting distributions of Nanoreseau and PC-compatible equipment in private education followed a pattern similar to the one found in the state educational sector. Middle and large primary schools opted for the Nanoreseau and upper schools for PC-compatibles. In the private market, the share of Apple computers fell markedly.

Software Dissemination and Mixed Licenses A Policy Among the innovations that followed the implementation of the Computing for All Plan, the policy of mixed licenses was no doubt the most spectacular measure. Five years after the beginning of its implementation, it is still

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considered to be a success. The principle of mixed licenses relies on two basic ideas. First, software programs are selected by the Ministry to be the objects of license agreements with their producers. Each license agreement provides two fundamental clauses: the software producer undertakes to sell its product to educational establishments at a very low price, theoretically close to the cost price; and to compensate for the loss of profit resulting from this significant price drop, the Ministry pays the software producer a lump sum, which has been evaluated joindy between them, according to the potential number of establishments concerned by the product. Second, each educational establishment receives a budget with which it will be able to buy software absolutely freely, choosing either licensed programs at reduced prices or nonlicensed programs at their normal prices. This system was conceived to allow educational establishments to obtain the programs they need while keeping within the law. It also allowed the regularization of existing situations, most notably the situation of establishments in possession of pirated program copies which could now be licensed and legally "bought back" by the establishments. After four years of operating under the mixed licenses policy, it seemed that this objective has been reached and that establishments no longer used illegal software copies except in particular instances. The policy of mixed licenses only concerned establishments whose equipment budgets were directly controlled by the Ministry. Essentially, these were the middle schools and the upper schools for general and technical education. Thus the policy excluded, on the one hand, all state sector primary schools (38,227), whose equipment budgets are ensured by the communities, and on the other hand, the universities, which are autonomous as far as their equipment budget is concerned. Similarly, private education was not concerned by mixed licenses. In other words, the policy of mixed licenses limited itself to the 7,455 secondary establishments in.the state sector. As they all depend for their management upon the Upper and Middle School Department, it became in some ways the spearhead organization for national policy in matters of educational technologies. Software Dissemination from 1987 to 1992 Progress. Each year since 1987, the Upper and Middle School Department has made, in the same conditions and according to the same principles, invitations to tender for acquiring rights of use in the form of mixed licenses. Consultations are a constant success with publishers. An average of 700 product proposals are received annually; the number of programs selected each year is around 40. However, the Ministry stopped publishing the software purchasing figures in 1989, so it is no longer possible to provide a very accurate analysis of the evolution of quantitative and qualitative

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behaviors in this field. Since 1991, all licensed programs have been programs intended for PC-compatible type machines. Transition to all-PC was thus a major trend that has now apparently succeeded. Moreover, the publisher Microsoft seems to have maintained its domination. The software Works, a basic tool of office automation that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and communication software, was licensed in 1989 and sold over 40,000 copies to schools by the end of 1991. Two other less pronounced trends can also be revealed. First, a relative weakening was evident in the distribution of strictly educational software connected to a general education discipline. Between 1989 and 1992, several publishers of these programs had to cease or greatly reduce their business in the school sector. Second, the technical and professional disciplines taught in upper schools (industrial sciences and technologies, tertiary sector, and so on) have been playing an increasingly important part in the ordering of specialized programs. Extent of success. The number of software products distributed between 1988 and 1991 in the 7,455 establishments depending on the Upper and Middle School Department is estimated at 250,000, that is to say an average of 33 programs per establishment. This suggests that the procedure of mixed licenses was very favorably received by teachers, thereby proving that it properly answered the general needs of secondary education establishments and also that the use of the computer tool in various subject fields was becoming an everyday feature of life. Nevertheless, some risks, which had been identified as soon as the procedure was launched, were confirmed in practice. They have accompanied and perhaps contributed to amplifying the loss of buyers' interest in strictly educational products. Three negative effects of the policy can be mentioned: licensed products seem to absorb the market through a "dumping" effect; licenses have been guiding software consumption towards classroom uses and heavy products; and licenses encourage software acquisition but not necessarily its consumption or use. Despite the significant and consistent investments that the state has been making since 1986 in order to purchase software products, the procedure of mixed licenses thus seems to have found a lukewarm success in one of the plans of action it had set itself. A national industry of educational software has not been developed and maintained. Everything happens as if the main beneficiary of the mixed license policy were the North American publisher Microsoft. Whatever judgment one might choose to make on such observations, the roots of it should not be sought in the mixed license policy as such, but mainly in the evolution of practices.

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The Case of Primary Schools The specificity of decentralized primary school management in France does not incite us to compare too directly the practices observed in primary schools with those observed in middle and upper schools. Nevertheless, some remarks that seem to go beyond this specificity may be brought forward. Whereas middle and upper schools orient themselves almost exclusively towards the PC standard (with its variants MS/DOS and Windows), primary schools seem to have to remain open to a relative multiplicity of hardware standards. The replacement of 8-bit machines, which are still in the majority, is being carried out in at least two directions, PC-Windows and Macintosh. On the other hand, the evolution of software trends in the practices and products the primary schools use seems to be following the same path set out by middle and upper schools. Along with the marginalization of strictly educational software and abandonment of programming languages, there is a growing attraction to the leading office automation programs as well as word processors, spreadsheets, database managers, graphics editors, and desktop publishing software. However, the trend of mutation of hardware and software and their uses is much slower in primary schools than in middle and upper schools. It is only now in an initial phase and much less advanced than in secondary education.

Current Practices Renewal of Hardware Equipment From 1988 on, the growth of the microcomputer population in middle and upper schools has been following a consistent pace, particularly since the financing was handed over to the regions. The following table gives an evaluation for each year since 1986 of the number of machines purchased and of the estimated PC population in the whole French educational system, state and private, primary and secondary. The purchasing figures in the table resulted from a survey carried out in June 1989 by Dataquest, and the estimated volume of the equipment population is based upon adjustments for an average life span for hardware of 5 years' length.

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Table 3. Annua! Number of Purchases, Percent Growth, and Estimate of Total Microcomputer Population, 1986-1993

Year

Number Purchased

Percent Growth

1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993

14,100 19,900 41,100 58,500 69,900 79,300 87,200 97,600

79.6 91.5 68.0 48.4 25.3 25.0 16.8

Estimated Microcomputer Population 25,000 44,900 86,000 144,500 214,400 268,700 336,000 392,500

Note: The population estimate is based upon an average expected lifespan of 5 years for hardware. Thus, the 97,600 microcomputers purchased in 1993 are added to the population estimate for that year, but the 41,100 microcomputers purchased 5 years earlier were also subtracted from it. Source: Dataquest survey, June 1989.

From the data in Table 3, it can be estimated that the number of PCcompatibles exploited at the beginning of 1994 for educational activities in middle and upper schools was not far from 400,000. This estimation is corroborated by other ones that came from different sources. As regards printers, the most spectacular and interesting phenomenon to observe is the rapid spread of laser printers. It is evident that the spread of this type of peripheral has already started, at least in upper schools, and that it has been noticeably accelerating since 1991. Today, the vast majority of upper schools that have a base of PC-microcomputers set up in a network have at least one laser printer. A similar phenomenon of comparable scope has been accompanying the spread of mouse-type peripherals. The case of specialized peripherals such as scanners, data acquisition units, plotters, graphic tablets, or synthesizers-usually associated with specific educational disciplines and practices—cannot be dealt with here at the general level. But two examples of using specialized peripherals will be given below in connection to some leading practices in the teaching of music (with synthesizers) and the experimental sciences (with data acquisition units). Similarly, the development of optical memories and in particular of CD-ROM drives and disks will be examined further in the discussion of future plans. Software Population In middle and upper schools, software acquisitions have been conditioned since 1987 by the so-called mixed license procedure in the direction that

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establishments' software purchases have increasingly favored programs that were the object of a mixed license agreement. As a summary of the consequences, bear in mind the three major trends that were noticed in software acquisitions under mixed licenses policy between 1987 and 1992: the massive presence of standard office automation software; a weakening of the part taken by educational software; and an increase of the part taken by software designed for technical and professional disciplines. By choosing thusly to follow the evolution of the dominant consuming practices in the world of microcomputing, the education world also inherited its behavior and its failings. In the case of educational establishments, whose rhythm of assimilation of innovative technologies cannot be compared with that of a company, this situation entails perverted effects which are sometimes hard to control or to compensate for. In particular, the rapid and provoked obsolescence of software not only accompanies but intensifies that for hardware. Expressed in the educational realm, this race for technical performance does not guarantee in itself any gain in productivity. Indeed, one might underscore instead the relative loss of productivity entailed by the transition from one program to another, from a simple version to a more sophisticated version. Teachers' Training Teachers' training is considered to be a key factor for the development of educational computing. Until 1990 (when they were made more alike), the French system considered the training needs of primary teachers quite differently from secondary school teachers. Until then, the former had received a real initial training for the profession of at least one year in a Teachers' Training College whereas the latter most of the time had relied only upon a classic university training. Since 1987, with an objective defined for giving 50 hours of computer teaching to pupils aged 9-to-lO, Teachers' Training Colleges have provided intermediate classroom teachers with a specific training on the theme of new information and communication technologies. For secondary education teachers, there is no common initial training to use educational technologies. Each year, over 500,000 teachers (about 2/3 of all primary and secondary teachers in the country) follow the continuing education activities proposed by their school districts, each of which develops its training plan ("Plan Academique de Formation") in a very independent way. The importance attached to training courses oriented towards technologies varies from one school district to another. Still, the nature of the training courses school districts propose has greatly evolved since the years following the Computing for All Plan. While the early topics focussed on introductions to Logo or Basic, the proposed themes progressively have been oriented more towards

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the use of standard programs (word processors, spreadsheets, and so on) and their applications in particular school disciplines, such as the use of word processing in French classes or of spreadsheet in mathematics. Teachers' training within primary schools is essentially based on networks of trainer-teachers who are in charge of helping the colleagues in their administrative region to develop the use of the computing tool in their classes. In 1991, these networks employed around 0.35 trainer-teachers per district, each district grouping together between 250 and 300 primary school teachers to be trained. The objective of the Primary School Department is to reach the level of a 0.5 trainer-teacher per district, a ratio considered satisfactory for establishment needs and in correspondence with the appropriate place technologies are expected to occupy. Some Leading Practices Either on the basis of previous experiments or regardless of them, a certain number of exemplary practices that have been identified in middle and upper schools can provide an outline of how technologies are currently used in French education. Among the most promising ones, four were selected to describe here. Experimental sciences. The operation of computers as laboratory tools is becoming ordinary in the context of the classroom, especially in physics and chemistry and to a lesser extent in geology and biology. Three main types of software contribute to the modernization of training in the experimental sciences. First of all, there are programs which carry out an automatic capture of measurements and data by means of data acquisition units. These programs directly ensure the processing of the data and consequently provide the possibility to spend less classroom time in measurement taking~a painstaking and repetitive activity—and more time thinking about the data's exploitation and the significance and interpretation of the obtained results. Second, some data acquisition and real-time information processing programs participate in the construction of experiments. Here, too, the computer frees pupils and students for analysis, reflection, and discussion by taking care of the main part of the technical control of the experiment. Finally, software programs that have been created (based upon models derived from previous experiments) to allow the simulation of theoretical experiments revive the real practice of scientists. The computing speed and the access to a wide data collection allow numerous pupils to supervise this rich and complex approach. One can consider that today, a vast majority of upper schools have in their physics laboratories hardware equipment for data acquisition and some application software for chemistry, electricity, or mechanics.

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Music education. In the framework of its national program of innovations, the Upper and Middle School Department implemented an experimental action in 1988 with the aim of studying the impact of the new "electronic instruments" on educational practices in music. A dozen music education and choir teachers collaborated in planning the project. Now, a PC-type microcomputer with a MIDI interface, a synthesizer, a sampler, a drum machine, and software programs that allow the operation of these new instruments have found a place around the traditional piano of music rooms. Use of technologies in Resource and Information Centres. About half of the middle schools and all of the upper schools in France have a Resource and Information Centre that plays the part of a library and resource center accessible to the pupils. One of the major interests in working in Resource Centres is that it inevitably becomes a multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary activity. Since 1989, pilot experiments dealing with the theme of documentary retrieval have been conducted in 11 middle schools distributed across 5 school districts. The objective of such work is to lead pupils to autonomy in the access to information and its processing. The technological phase deals with the search of information stored on an information carrier, and the various technological tools operated to do so include PC-compatible type microcomputers, videotex terminals for consulting remote data banks, CD-ROM drives and databases, and document retrieval software. None of the experiments in process are specialized in the use of technological tools but most of them include a computing or telematic phase. Remote sensing, which provides satellite images that can be used educationally, is another essentially interdisciplinary activity. Generally, the privileged users of spaces images are biologists and historian-geographers. But physics teachers are also concerned in that the analysis of such images presupposes a minimum knowledge of the physical phenomena linked to their acquisition. Practicing this activity in the French education system are 28 teams who were granted the following special equipment for their work: a PC-AT type microcomputer with a 20 megabyte hard disk and an EGA color monitor, a color graphic printer, a set of 30 satellite sub-images in the form of slides and in the form of digital data, an image processing program (TITUS), and a radiometer. Many educational sequences were conceived and implemented by the teams. The images used came from the observation satellite SPOT and were directly ordered by each team, who chose very precisely the place, date, time, and characteristics of the negatives it wanted to get. As examples of the educational projects carried out, let us mention a study of the Rhine water conducted at the upper school of Strasbourg, of the Chinon forest conducted at the upper school of Tours, of the drought in the Limousin region at the upper school of Bellac, of the Dol swamp at the upper school of Rennes, and of Mediterranean forest fires at the upper school of Nice.

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Future Plans For this last part, three examples were selected of the educational use of technologies, CD-ROMS, local networks, and portables, because they seem to reveal a prevailing form in the evolution of practices. All three have the distinctive characteristic of being supported by an innovative technology. But beyond technology, we will of course apply ourselves to identifying and describing the educational practices they induce. CD-ROMs In regard to the general background of CD-ROM development in France, the Ministry of Education decided as soon as 1988 to initiate a process that would make a place for them at the disposal of educational establishments. The Ministry's objectives were to introduce the potentials of the CD-ROM to the widest possible public, to give rise to innovative educational practices based on its use, to train teachers for such uses, and to bring together the conditions for the emergence of a CD-ROM market that would take into account the needs of the educational system. In 1988, the Upper and Middle School Department purchased 650 CDROM drives and 1300 disks and put them at the disposal of the school districts. Whereas initially the provision of CD-ROM equipment was perceived as a major and risky undertaking within education circles, this action served as a catalyst to their distribution in upper and middle schools. Although local communities satisfy the expectations of educational establishments in the framework of grant decentralization, this ministerial initiative successfully aroused their interest. The present population of available drives in upper and middle schools is estimated at around 2,500. In numerous establishments, CD-ROMs are installed in the Resource and Information Centres. Their access is organized along two logical lines: that of free access for pupils and that of access within the framework of structured educational situations, for example, to be used in tutorial classes with the librarian or a teacher. The Resource and Information Centre is in fact an area where pupils and teachers often go to search for the documents and information they need; therefore, the CD-ROM drive and disks have found a natural place here. Moreover, the Resource Centre tends to play a very particular part in educational computing which is not limited to the exclusive use of CDROMs. The presence of available microcomputers in the Resource Centre invites pupils use them as they carry out autonomous working activities, so there is no doubt that the CD-ROM will serve as a catalyst for documentary research activities.

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Observers have reported not only working group activities in the computer room but also collective work activities in the classrooms-which seem even more promising~with a computer and a CD-ROM drive connected to an overhead projection screen. This use, which has the advantage of focussing attention on a same point visible for all, appears to be a new version of the concept of the electronic blackboard; it leads to practices of "collective navigation" which could become widespread within the next few years. Operating CD-ROMs in regular classrooms, computer rooms, or in Resource Centres clearly comes up against a significant material problem: It is hardly thinkable today that, on the short term, each workstation can be equipped with a CD-ROM drive and disks. It thus becomes a requirement to connect the various workstations into a network that allows each unit to exploit the common resources, among which of course would be a CD-ROM drive and a variety of available CD-ROM disk titles. Computer Networks and Audio-Visual Networks The reality of the educational environment leads to multiple spatial constraints that weigh heavily on the use of technological resources. The way the physical space is organized in establishments can favor or hinder the use of technologies. For example, the existence of a room devoted to computer equipment will preclude any flexibility in the organization of work with pupils. Teachers in that setting will be compelled to develop complex strategies and management modes that are sometimes hardly compatible with the normal progress of learning activities. In addition space management problems add to the time management problems traditionally experienced by the French school system, and make resource sharing a key concept in the development of the uses of information and communication technologies. A set of experiments conducted in about 15 school districts recently contributed to clarifying this landscape. Based upon them, it was observed that the technological tools invading the educational sphere appear to be related to two kinds of networks, whose connection and convergence are inevitable in the long run, but that the present state of the art compels us to distinguish: • computer networks with all the resources that are liable to be accessible through a unique network such as hard disks, laser printers, modems, scanners, faxes, software, and CD-ROMs; and • audio-visual networks with all the resources that are related to reception, storage, and video image broadcast such as televisions, videotape recorders, videodisk players, microwave reception antennas, dish antennas for satellite reception, or connectors to access urban cabled networks.

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The horizon of audio-visual and computer network development appears today to converge with that of the future's multimedia spheres. However, one should underline that the number of experiments conducted in the domain of telecommunication networks has been very small. A part of the Computing for All Plan was devoted to the use of telematic, mainly through the France Telecom videotex system, Minitel. But neither this first attempt nor following ones (like, for example, the use of bulletin board systems) succeeded to go beyond isolated experiments. One of the reason for that is financial. France Telecom never agreed to apply lower tariffs to educational organizations, whose responsibles generally refuse to take the risk of unpredictable expenses. One Portable Per Pupil Jacques Hebenstreit, a prominent figure in French educational computing, has come to think that the development of educational technologies is directly linked with the advent of portable computers which will allow us in a near future to achieve the equation: one pupil-one micro. According to Hebenstreit, the application of the equation would have such significant repercussions, it is difficult to picture them more precisely than this: the market of education software will have millions of customers who are pupils; pupils' working methods will change; and teaching methods will find themselves undermined from within. Examples of the latter would occur if spelling checkers integrated in word processors make spelling teaching obsolete or if curve plotters and formal calculators make a large part of the mathematics currently taught obsolete. In order to grasp the matter more clearly, the Upper and Middle School Department initiated at the beginning of 1992 a portable computer experiment in three secondary education establishments. A PC-compatible portable microcomputer was handed to each pupil and teacher involved in the experiment, who comprised a single class in each of the three participating schools. Each machine was standardly equipped with the program Windows by Microsoft, a floppy disk drive, a hard disk, and a mouse. The choice of the applications put at the pupils' disposal was left to the teachers' initiative. Each site is to be followed up and observed by a team of university scholars responsible for reporting and analyzing the effects of the experiment at the end of the school year. At the moment these lines are being written, the experiment is still in progress, and we are thus unable to anticipate fully the results and the lessons that will have to be drawn from it. Nevertheless, it seemed useful to mention its existence as well as the expectations arising from it. Even more so than with other experiments, it certainly raises a series of fundamental questions about the role of technologies in education. Particularly, insofar as the experiment places the pupil at the center of the system, it leads back to the issue of the contribution of technologies to

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educational practice, no longer from the teaching point of view but from that of learning.

Conclusions After over 20 years of experiments, progresses, and backsliding, what can be said today about the integration of information and communication technologies in the French educational system? As could be noted throughout this presentation, each experiment was first determined on the basis of a central question, always the same, which always received the same answer: Should computing become a subject of study and therefore be constituted as a discipline in the same way as other school disciplines or, conversely, should computing be a teaching tool, a new means in the package of didactic resources, that should be at the disposal of teachers of existing disciplines? In a recurring way, in all international and national congresses as well as in all the preambles to the state decisions in France that outiined the educational computing landscape, this question was answered in these terms: Computing must not become a subject of study but a tool serving the teaching that the educational system provides. But the consequences of this choice are never totally considered. For example, the place of computers and the use standardized software is mentioned in the general instructions but never detailed in a discipline's curriculum. With hindsight one can wonder about this insistence on maintaining computing within such limits. What forces aroused the fear of invasive computing? What exorcism can be at work in the repetition of the same argument? Despite certain appearances, the dialectic between computing-assubject-of-study and computing-as-teaching-tool continues to influence in depth, through multiple transformations, all forms of the collective assimilation of educational computing within the education system. If one could forget about yesterday and contemplate today's reality of uses, what would be noted? Everything is happening as if the use of educational technologies were centered around the implementation of office automation programs. In other words, the mastery of education disciplines seems to be achieved through the concomitant mastery of the functionalities of office automation programs. One finds here again the two components mentioned earlier. On the one hand is the component of teaching computing by training pupils in the mastery of technological resources, and on the other hand is the component of programming a discipline by the educational formatting of its teaching contents in accord with office automation applications.

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We Still lack certainty about the scope of the phenomenon wherein teaching contents are educationally formatted through office automation applications. Beforehand, one should even ascertain the reality of this phenomenon in light of the fact that the available information about practices and uses is indeed quite insufficient. Knowing precisely how technological resources are used in primary and secondary education and knowing how they are implemented by teachers in the framework of pupils' learning activities appear today as a major necessity for whoever cares to see the development of their integration into the educational system. Running such an undertaking presupposes that a careful observation and description operation be carried out rather than an assessment operation, which we are too often tempted to do.

References Baron, G-L. (1989). L'informatique discipline scolairtl Le cas des lycees (Computing as a discipline: The case of upper schools). Presse Universitaire de France. Bulletins de VE.P.I. Enseignement Public et Informatique.. Cari-Info. Les logiciels en Licence Mixte (The mixed licensed software). Centre Regional de Documentation Pedagogique Nantes. Grandbastien, M. Les technologies nouvelles dans Venseignement technique: Situation au terme des annees 80 et propositions d'orientation pour la decennie a venir (New technology in technical training: State of the art at the end of the 80s and proposals of orientation for the next ten years). An unpublished report established on request from Mr. Robert Chapuis, former Minister of Technical Training. Hermant, C. (1985). Enseigner, apprendre avec Vordinateur (Teaching and learning with computers). Paris: Cedic/Nathan. MEN. (1990). Reperes & references statistiques sur les enseignements et la formation (Data and statistics on education and training). Ministere de 1'Education Nationale, Department of Assessment and Futurology. MEN. (1990). Integration de I'outil informatique dans les disciplines: Education Musicale et Informatique (Integration of computers in disciplines: Music learning and computers). Ministere de 1'Education Nationale de la Jeunesse et des Sports, Upper and Middle School Deparmtent. MEN. (1990). Pedagogical use of satellites images. Utilisation pedagogique des images satellites. Ministere de 1'Education Nationale de la Jeunesse et des Sports, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Octor, R. (1991.) La legislation du systeme educatif frangais (Legislation of the French educational system). Paris: Ed Armand Colin.

The authors are affiliated with the Observatoire des Technologies pour I'Education en Europe (OTE), 37 rue du Moulin des Bruyeres, 92400, Courbevoie, France.

HANS-GEORG ROMMEL AND MANFRED LANG

COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

In two stages in 1984 and 1987, the federal and the state governments of Germany unanimously passed an overall concept for integrating education and the new information technologies with the paradigm and philosophy of German education. Since Germany's unification, the five new states of the former eastern German Democratic Republic have integrated the concept, too. Nearly all secondary schools are equipped with usable hardware in special computer rooms. A basic education unit in the new information technologies (40-90 lesson hours) is now part of the regular compulsory subjects of lower secondary schools. It can be followed, mainly in upper secondary Gymnasium, by an optional subject in computer science sometime between grades 11 and 13. But the usage of computers as additional educational tools in regular school subjects is not yet a widespread choice. Currently, state authorities and federal-state projects concentrate on developing multimedia experiments and the use of wide and local area networks.

The German Educational System The Autonomy of the Lander and the Powers of the Bund In the Federal Republic of Germany, the legal competencies and the socalled cultural sovereignty of the states—the Lander—lie at the very core of their statehood. Within the field of education, state sovereignty includes the responsibilities to control and supervise all schools; to organize compulsory schooling, the timetable, and the syllabi; to employ and finance school personnel; and to finance school premises. The German constitution also empowers the federal parliament and its authorities-the Bund—to intervene directly or indirectly in the school system. Regulating the salaries for teachers; organizing internal vocational training; and overseeing the university basic law, including the regulation of university entrances, research support, and student grants, all fall within the power of the Bund. 197 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 197-221. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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The fundamental structure of Germany's schools is regulated by agreements that the Lander make together on the national level. To coordinate their work for schools and universities, the Lander hold regular meetings known as the Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education. Here, the ministers formulate federal-wide basic regulations to be put into practice by rules of the Land. Other agreements that are formed in the meetings regard teacher qualifications and school standards including the efforts that will be taken to maintain equal educational chances in Germany's schools. As specified by the German Unification Act of 1990, the five new Lander (of the former eastern German Democratic Republic) adapted their school systems to conform to the agreements of the Permanent Conference in 1991-92. Also, in correspondence with the practices of the old Lander, each new state, with the exception of Sachsen, concentrated within a single institute (the "Landinstitute") its organization of teacher inservice education, curriculum development, and information centers for education in the information technologies. For reference. Table 1 lists the names of the 11 old states of the Federal Republic of Germany and the 5 newly unified states.

Table 1. Sixteen States of the Federal Republic of Germany Old Lander Baden-Wurttemberg, Bayem, Berlin*, Bremen*, Hamburg*, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein New Lander Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommem, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thuringen Note: * = City states.

In December of 1993, the Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education enacted an extensive mutual framework for all of the school types in Germany acknowledging different certificates. In addition to providing a common syllabi format for compulsory subjects, the new framework also places emphasis upon general basic education and the individual formation of objectives. A special process of the Permanent Conference is devoted to coordinating the syllabi of the vocational schools with revisions that the Bund makes in the regulations for vocational training. Recent negotiations of the Permanent Conference concern the fact that some Lander require fewer years of schooling than others. All of the new Lander except Brandenburg require 12 years before final examinations; Brandenburg and the old Lander uniformly require 13 years.

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Another joint body, the Bund-Lander-Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion-hereafter referred to as the BLK ("BundLander-Kommission fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung")-is responsible for educational planning and the promotion of research in general, especially in the scientific institutions of national importance. It has been the Commission's duty to coordinate the preparation, execution, and scientific accompaniment of educational pilot projects since 1971. BLK pilot projects comprise the most important instruments for the development and testing of innovations in the educational system. When the Bund-LanderCommission (BLK) recommends a project, the Bund provides 50% of the project cost. In just over 20 years, more than 2000 pilot projects have been financed (BLK, 1983). Within the Lander, the Land parliaments enact the school legislation that sets conditions for the framework and control of the educational system. It is primarily the ministries of the Land who decide about curricula and innovative projects. However, parents, local school authorities, and experts from science and practice also participate in different ways in the decision processes. Teachers are considered state officials. Individual communities are responsible for the acquisition and financing of materials (including computers) and the building and upkeep of the schools. Land syllabi represent obligatory guidelines for schools and teachers, although they differ among the Lander in their degree of elaboration. Some Lander have detailed catalogues of topics for each grade and school type while others provide only general outlines for the content areas. The content specified for a grade must be handled almost completely within given time limits. Therefore, a choice of topics is very limited, but the choice of presentation methods is relatively open. Teachers have been given an increasing amount of pedagogical freedom in the selection of learning materials. For instructional purposes, they may use textbooks-recommended or not, other books, journals, curriculum materials, copied materials, animations, demonstrations, experimental designs, software, or other supporting material as they choose. All students as well are allowed a certain degree of choice. Some subjects and workshops are available for free choice as electives. Others are offered among a set of "forced-choice" options, sets of courses from which only one course may be chosen. The Structure of the System Compulsory attendance for general schooling usually starts at age 6 and continues for 9 school years; in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Berlin, and

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Brandenburg, it lasts 10 years. For the most part, general education is organized as half-days of school for five days a week. Work groups (which include computer education groups) are offered for the students either following morning instruction or sometime later in the afternoon.

Grade \l3 \l2

111 \io

Age Dual vocational system (on-the-job training and part-time vocational school)

Vocational

full-time-school

1 or2 years Berufsfachschule 2 years Fachoberschule (college entrance certificate)

Gymnasiale

Oberstufe

(Gymnasium, vocational and special level Gymnasium Comprehensive School)

basic vocational educ, Berufsgrundbildungsjahr (JOth grade)

9 8 7

Upper secondary Level

15

Hauptschule (HS) Realschule (RS) Gymnasium Interconnected secondciry school (Regelschule, Sekun Jarschule, Mittelschule)

Comprehensive school

6 5 Stage of particular orientation (independent of a school type or part of a particular school type) 4 3 2 1

18 17 16

Primary school

IS 14 13 12

Lower secondary level

11 10 9 8 7 6

Primary level

Figure 1. The Educational System in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Figure 1 illustrates the relation of the school types in the German educational system. The exact grade at which the lower and upper secondary levels are divided depends upon state and school type. Three years comprise upper secondary Gymnasium, but in 4 Lander these occur from grades 10 through 12 and in 12 Lander from grades 11 through 13. As Table 2 indicates, slightly more than 1/4 of the lower secondary students attend Gymnasium offering a final exam (Abitur) that allows university entrance. The majority of students attend either Hauptschulen (schools with basic learning of cultural techniques), Realschulen (schools with intermediate level of qualification), or integrated classes in Hauptschulen and Realschulen. Comprehensive schools offer a range of choices that crosscut these three traditional school streams.

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Table 2. Students by School Type and University Entrance Percent Distribution of Grade 8 Students School Type Gymnasium Integrated (HS/RS) Hauptschule (HS) Realschulen (RS) Comprehensive (or other) Others (e.g. Waldorf)

29.8 29.3 24.8 9.1 2.9 4.1

Total

100 Percent of Students* Who Began University

Year 1989 1990 1992

Old Lander 25.0 30.1 31.1

N e w Lander

19.5

Germany

29,5

Note: * = University beginners with an average age of 19 among the population under the age of 21. Source: Grund-und Strukturdaten 1993/1994, Bundesminister fur Bildung and Wissenschaften.

However, Table 2 does not reveal that the number of students who attend Hauptschule differs significantly from state to state. The Lander which adhere more closely to the school system with three streams show more than 1/4 of their students attending Hauptschule. Based upon data from 1991, the percentage of students in Hauptschule was 40.2% in Bayern and 38.6% in Baden-Wiirttemberg. In the states more oriented to comprehensive and integrated secondary schools, the percentages are lower. For example, in Hessen and in the town Lander of Hamburg in 1991, not quite 20% of the students were attending Hauptschule. In the old German Lander, the proportion of students attending Realschulen, comprehensive school, or Gymnasium has been continuously increasing for more than 20 years, and more new integrated and comprehensive schools have been established to accommodate the shift away from Hauptschulen. About 30% of the students in Hauptschulen continue with the extra 10th grade year in transition to the dual system of vocational training (Arbeitsgruppe Bildungswesen, 1990). The dual system, which requires a training period of 3.5 years, is of major importance because it combines internal training in a company (or in an especially established regional

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workshop) with compulsory school attendance at a vocational school. Berufsfachschule and Fachoberschule are full-time vocational schools. The latter are devoted to single disciplines such as engineering, art, or agriculture and confer college entrance certificates upon school-leaving. This certificate, similar to the leaving certificate obtained by passing the final examinations of Gymnasium (the Abitur), gives its holders the constitutional right to university admittance. The lower half of Table 2 indicates the growth in the percentages of students over the last few years who have passed the secondary examinations that insure the right to study at university. In 1993, the Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education established a new intermediate secondary certificate that allows students to leave general schooling after 9 or 10 years to continue special training in vocational schools for non-academic jobs Ninety percent of Germany's students attend the public schools. Yet, to the extent that any private schools are acknowledged as substitutes for public schools, they are subject to the syllabi and school inspections of the Lander, and they can award the same school-leaving certificates as the public schools do. A small number of private schools are not acknowledged as substitute schools and do not award Land-acknowledged school certificates.

Computer Policies and Resources Federal Planning of Information Technological Education The earliest education in computers began in Germany in two areas. At the start of the 1970s, the Bund established data processing within the regulations for professional training, and in 1972, the subject of computer science ("Informatik") was first introduced into the regular scheme of upper secondary Gymnasium. In 1983-84, Bund and Lander agreed that the new information and communication technologies constituted a major challenge for the future of education and the entire society (BLK, 1984) and should be integrated, appropriate to the specific goals at different school levels, into all streams of the system from lower secondary to adult education. The BLK then began to introduce information technological education ("IT education") into the schools via pilot projects while the consistent frame concepts for integrating it into all regular school types and courses were still being developed. In 1987, Germany brought these developing concepts together in its Comprehensive Concept for Education in Information Technology for all Educational Sectors (BLK, 1987). This represented the first time within the countries of the European Union that every educational level (primary,

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secondary, vocational, university, and further adult education) had been connected by a concept embracing all of those contexts at once. The German proposal for its Comprehensive Concept also described specific aims and evaluated their appropriateness to the concept goals. Today, the concept still integrates IT education* with the organization and objectives of German education. Its planning orientation focusses on existing types and courses of general education, total rehearsal of vocational training regulations, and enhanced faculties and courses in higher education. Although different policies for dissemination occur in some of the Lander, the original aims of the Comprehensive Concept have continued to represent the mutual objectives of all participants. BLK pilot projects. In 1984, the BLK arranged support programs for microelectronics to be the main focus of their mutual pilot projects. In 1987, with the passage of the Comprehensive Concept, the support programs were expanded to accommodate a broad range of more specific topics. Among the issues the BLK considered in 1993-94 were the consequences of further distributing enhanced networking and long distance data transfer to the schools and the future influence of developing technologies in general. Presently, hypermedia and interactive multimedia instruction are being cleared by BLK pilot projects. Whether or not the Lander transfer and adopt the results of BLK pilot projects depends upon personnel resources, technical equipment, financial means, policy estimations of the project results, and the statewide possibilities to create and provide the relevant teacher education opportunities. This approach—using pilot projects to test and refine educational changes—secures a rolling reform relevant to IT education. Moreover, it assists in satisfying the dictum in Germany that all education and training, including programs for lifelong learning, are supposed to bear close relation to society, the professional and working world, the economy, and science. Vocational education. Necessary adjustment work for IT education at the vocational school level is prepared for within a multi-level process at the federal vocational training institute in Berlin, the Bund Institute for Vocational Education. There, representatives of both Bund and Lander governments work on training revisions together with representatives from In some Lander, this educational area is specifically identified as either "information and communication technologies" or the "new information and communication technologies". For the sake of simplicity, this paper will restrict its references to the more common phrase "information technological education" (or IT education).

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among their social partners, German employers and employees. Recently, as part of a reorganization of the training guidelines for the professions, the Bund and the Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education voted on the aims of IT education for the vocational dual system. Their unanimous decision had the effect of making IT education a nationally concurrent focus for more than 70% of the students in the dual system. Educational Software As graphic-oriented user systems have become more available and the standard software for word processing, chart calculation, and databases diversified, the use of the computer as a tool in school lessons has gained ground. But the Land-institutes rely on specifically developed educational software as well as the standard software available on the commercial market. A priority in selection is the software's specific character as an educational medium for meeting the learning objectives of a course in different ways (Rommel, 1993). In Germany, educational software is available on a large scale for conventional subjects and methods such as reading, writing, mathematics, and science (Lang, 1994). The number of programs documented in the national database called the Software Documentation and Information System (SODIS), centrally located in Soest, was 3,203 in January 1994. Of those, 2,211 used German language dialogue, most of which had been developed in Germany. As the SODIS and Table 3 documents, only a small number of software programs have been endorsed as educationally valuable by the subject-experts. Teachers are encouraged to choose from these approved lists. However, the Lander are usually satisfied to consider their recommendations non-obligatory. One Land, Nordrhein-Westfalen, attempted a compromise by introducing a general certification-requirement for the use of educational software but allowing a liberal practice for schools to choose software. In 1993, all of the Lander except Bayern, Hessen, and NordrheinWestfalen gave up developing educational software in the Land-institutes. Thus, contemporary development of educational software, like the production of school books and other educational materials, is subject to the rules of the free market. To facilitate successful use of qualified educational software, the Land-institutes do conduct elaborated consultations with schools, school authorities, and publishers. One other source of new educational software is the institute for audiovisual media and software, the Institute for Film and Picture in Science and Education in Griinwald supervised by all Lander. This

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Table 3. Documentation and Evaluation of the SODIS Software Collection (January, 1994) Available

Evaluated

Exemplary

Standard Software Remedial Education Primary School

48 626 235

22 366 137

1 7

Computer Subjects Basic IT Education Computer Science

116 131

53 50

18 4

Other Subjects Society-Theory Mathematics Natural Science & Technology Art Music

214 277 242 25 48

167 221 166 13 18

10 19 26

Languages German English French Latin Spanish

131 171 85 24 27

88 96 70 16 21

2 8 3

2400

1504

98

Total

-

-

-

agency is able to fund new product development almost exclusively from the profits it gains in its dealings with the private economy. The fast-increasing links between printed and electronic publications are apparent in how often private publishers have been filling the gaps in their materials packets for different subjects with offers of educational software. At the same time, the usefulness of general programs (for word processing, databases, charts, and so on) in the lessons of diverse subject areas increases the educational diffusion of commercial software. In 1993, a group from the Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education worked with representatives of several leading software houses and succeeded in acquiring some very inexpensive school licenses for certain standard-user software packages.

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Hardware and Maintenance Acquisition. Initially, central governments were involved in supplying Germany's secondary schools with computer equipment. To obtain the hardware as speedily as possible in the 1980s, local school authorities in 6 of the 11 old Lander were allotted special Land finances. (Bayern had begun purchasing computers in the 1970s.) As PCs became important to individual secondary schools, a number of parent groups also donated large sums of money for equipment acquisition. In the former east Germany, the education ministry had equipped the expanding upper secondary polytechnic schools (comparable to Gymnasien) with computers before 1990 and partially did the same for the lower secondary polytechnic schools. By 1993, the local school authorities in all Lander assumed full responsibility for the financing of hardware, software, and maintenance purchases as a regular part of their budgeting processes. In other words, acquisition decisions are usually made by communes, cities, or rural districts. Other school organs, which include teacher conferences for all teachers or subject-specific groups of teachers, may further elaborate—within the limits of set frameworks-what materials individual schools will acquire. In several Lander, school conferences of students, teachers, and parents take part in the decision-making as well. The computer base. Hardware estimates for all Lander are not available. But for most of the old Lander, empirical investigations such as the IEA Computers in Education study (Hansen and Lang, 1993; Lang and SchulzZander, 1994) have provided good descriptions of the equipment situation. On the average, it seems there are over 15 computers per school in Hauptschulen, over 20 in Gymnasien, over 30 in Realschulen, and about 35 in vocational schools. In the summer of 1993, Bayern counted 50,000 computers in 3,000 schools (Standige Konferenz, 1991a), which represented a 58% increase since 1990. Probably the growth was mostly due to the acquisition of better equipment in the Hauptschulen substituting outdated material, and similar increases might be true for the other old Lander. Informal reports from the new Lander^ suggest that most of their general education schools have substantially smaller basic inventories of computers. Only about 4 or 5 computers, almost exclusively MS-DOS 80386 and 80486 PCs, are mentioned for each school. Sources include materials dated 1993 from the Bavarian Center for Computers in Education in Augsburg. In addition, messages were gathered in the spring of 1992 from the ministries of education and the Land-institutes for IT education.

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The Lander issue guidelines for the acquisition of hardware equipment through the ministries of education or Land-institutes. In some Lander, community representatives also contribute to the formation of guidelines. These statewide recommendations, which are revised from time to time, describe minimum standards for the most important parts of the computer equipment. For example, a common set of purchasing guidelines specifies a central unit with a processor of the 80xxx or 68xxx series, main memory of at least 512 KB RAM, a keyboard with German signs, a monitor, standard chart module, diskette drives, and hard disk. Hints abut printers, telephone modems, and software decoders are generally included, too. When the availability of new equipment is announced, a school wishing to purchase it would first require a proof that an authorized contract-dealer who can provide maintenance is located within reasonable school proximity. School authorities acquire approved products from generally established serial production and demand special school discounts fixing the price from 1000 to 2000 Deutschmarks per appliance. Usually in the schools, at least 8-10 computers are installed in a special room, providing about one computer for every two students. The prescribed minimum requirements for equipment generally apply to these computers while the older appliances such as 8-bit computers^ can be used in classrooms for other subjects. Today, the assumed period of utilization, up to 7-8 years, is longer than it was in the past. Teachers Training by the Land-institutes. The ministries of education of the Lander, responsible for the organization of teachers' continued training at the regional and local levels in Germany, made big efforts to develop both inservice and continuous training for basic computer education in the 1980s. Then the focal point was to bring up-to-date the teachers on duty who had no previous opportunities to be licensed for computer use in their classrooms. The administrations assumed that, thereafter, lower and upper secondary teachers for the new tasks (--at least several in each school) could be trained continuously. To provide inservice training for the unlicensed computer science teachers in the lower secondary level, the Lander relied upon lessons the Land-institutes offered and the network of regional subject consultants for computer science, both of which already existed. For upper secondary The older C-64 or 128 Commodore computers have almost completely been removed from use. The SODIS database abstains from listing software updates for those models and the Bavarian Center for Computers in Education will not procure them.

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computer science teachers, five Lander carried out preparation courses of one or several semesters through the Land-institutes. In part, phases for several weeks were organized in universities and with respective work groups in the Land-institutes; in part, participants obtained releases from one lesson period during the week to attend the special courses sessions. This training was intended to culminate in the acquisition of an additional teaching certificate. In the 1990s, emphasis in the old Lander shifted from inservice training for computer use in different subjects to consultation activities. These activities were organized through special sites of the Land-institutes and, in Bayern and Rheinland-Pfalz, through the use of subject consultants. In the new Lander, with the rearrangement of the school system in 1991, the Land-institutes reorganized teacher inservice training to be equally weighted between training for information-technical education and training in computer use across the curriculum. Compared to the 1980s, this is possible because so many more general educational and user-friendly software programs have become available. Ten Lander have focussed the responsibility for inservice and continuous teacher training entirely or partially in a Land-institute. Six Lander (including only Sachsen among the new Lander) organize teacher inservice training exclusively through these institutes. Both forms of organization have been quite successful. Opportunities for additional training are offered through intermittent subject congresses and workshops. Of central importance for the Lander politics that govern continued teacher training are the development of intensive forms of communication among all parties, from the ministries to the schools, and a balanced regional distribution of Lander institutes. In the largest Lander, intermediate levels of school supervision may also serve to cover the geographic region. Despite the growing use of new technologies to link the work of central and local work groups, the personal interaction in teacher inservice training remains indispensable. Training in universities. Inservice training programs and the programs offered by the universities that allow a student to earn a certificate for teaching computer science have consolidated considerably in the last few years. The universities became interested in offering teacher training for computer science after establishing their own computer science courses in the 1980s. Examination regulations for the subject were also enacted in the 1980s (except in Hessen) by the Land-institutes responsible for teacher certification. Now, too, in each of the new Lander newly-formed university computer courses for computer science are offered. As of 1993, six universities or technical schools offered courses of study lasting 3 to 5 years that qualify

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Students to teach computer science as a first or second subject in the upper secondary level of Gymnasium; eight offered courses qualifying students to teach it as a third, complementary subject. Courses to prepare teachers occur either in Departments of Education or Departments of Informatics.

The IT Curriculum Components of IT Education In Germany, education in information technologies encompasses three contexts of computer use in the schools. In lower secondary education, a basic introductory unit, "Basic Education in Information Technologies," which evolved into a compulsory subject for all lower secondary students by the late 1980s, is intended to give some general ideas about computer concepts and applications. In upper secondary schools, and in some lower secondary schools on a voluntary basis, computer science courses are offered as either free or forced-choice electives. More specialized computer science courses also occur in vocational schools and in Gymnasium where they help students prepare for advanced studies in science. The final use context for computers, use across the curriculum of regular subjects, occurs within diverse subjects and to different degrees among the Lander. In contrast to some other West European industrial countries (such as France and the United Kingdom), employing the computer as an educational medium for non-computer subjects was of minor importance to the German concept for IT education. The computer was to be used only where pedagogical possibilities existed for it to assist the implementation of instructional objectives. Therefore, in subjects that were suitable, the computer was to be introduced as a problem-solving instrument, as an aid to processing larger amounts of data, and as a means of illustration via simulation models. Usually, the individual schools and teachers decide independently which computer examples and instructional software they will employ (although in one Land, Nordrhein-Westfalen, the application of software requires permission from the ministry). Sometimes the ministries for education offer advice for choosing software and examples of computer use. Objectives and Rationales In all Lander, pilot projects, temporary basic guidelines, and the layout of syllabi are interlinked, and support for computer use is given via teacher

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inservice training, instructional aids, and the equipping of schools with hardware and software. Yet, the methods by which the common objectives for general IT education might be realized are a matter of some debate (Bosler et al., 1985; Klemm and Tillman, 1985; Peschke et al., 1984; Rolff and Zimmerman, 1985; Rommel, 1984; Weishaupt et al., 1991). In keeping with the German concept of the federal level, the Lander may proceed with different emphases according to their own individual political and local conditions. Thus, computer science courses are currently offered or not offered in lower secondary schools according to the different educational policies of the Land governments. These variations across Lander make it difficult to project how soon the broad integration of IT education in all schools may be accomplished. Two themes that are emphasized among the goals for IT education have not been in dispute: the needs to promote self-determined learning and a critical perspective. Since the early 1980s, authorities from both Bund and Lander have been unanimous in their opinion that IT education should reach beyond a technical and contents curriculum and contribute to solving the social problems which crop up at all levels with the introduction of new information technologies. The ELK expressly established an objective for critical examination because, in its view, the educational task before the nation includes securing compatibility with Germany's cultural inheritance. Doing so is thought to increase the chances that problems resulting from unsuitable dealings with the new technologies (for example, alienation) may be put to a halt (Bundesministerium fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft, 1986; Knaus, 1986). The other theme, self-determined learning, is frequently mentioned in the pedagogical introductions to syllabi for IT education. Supported learning objectives usually include: -

helping students to learn how to learn; to learn by discovery and research; to find and tap suitable kinds of information; to transfer previously acquired knowledge; and to develop anticipatory thinking.

Computers are discussed as beneficial for self-determined learning on the reasoning that the use of them to arrange text, graphics, and images teaches students new skills and new forms of perception. Moreover, computer use is believed to lend facility to illustrating complex subject matters, to

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demonstrating the effects of interlinked contexts, and to formulating and revising models. School Level Differences Primary education. In the majority of old Lander, primary schools were excluded from a systematic introduction to the area of IT education. The new Lander, too, placed priority on extending computer use in the secondary rather than the primary level. Primary school students, it is argued, have to learn the traditional basic skills first and foremost, skills (like reading and writing and arithmetic) which are not only necessary to daily life but an important prerequisite for dealing with computers as well. Nevertheless, IT education in primary school remains an open question. As a result of parental support at the local level, schools in some Lander use computers for interactive and independent dialogue in such fundamental subjects as German and mathematics. Thus, computer use at the primary level gradually gains ground, even without executing more large-scale programs to promote it. One indication of that gain is a growth in the number of systematic learning programs for the primary school documented by the German database of learning programs (SODIS). Lower secondary school. In the mid-1980s, the idea of offering a separate basic introductory unit in IT education as an independent subject was generally rejected because the favored approach was to integrate it within existing subjects instead. Some Lander specified certain main subjects as targets for integration, usually mathematics, science, or work studies. Others preferred to employ instruction in interdisciplinary projects as a context for integration. Today, the latter approach dominates-largely because the schools have found it useful for putting into operation the technological practice needed to meet their educational aims and impart key qualifications for technology, society, and the environment. Some schools also offer work groups for computer science partially for free choice or as a substitute for courses in basic education in Information Technologies. The development of the Comprehensive Concept during the years between 1984 and 1987 ushered in a determination to make the different types of basic education concepts in the new technologies compulsory at the lower secondary level. The Bund-Lander-Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion (BLK) formulated the teaching objectives which were to be the main focus for the development of a relevant curriculum. As Table 4 demonstrates, they can be summarized under three major topics.

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Table 4. Objects of a Compulsory Unit in Basic IT Instruction for Lower Secondary Schools

Information technologies as a technical tool ~ basic structures and definitions ~ the operation of a computer and its peripherals ~ algorithmical illustrations of problem-solving Daily-Ufe applications - possibilities for use and control ~ the development of electronic data processing Social and economic consequences ~ consequences of the spread of micro-electronics ~ opportunities and risks of information technologies — development of a rational relation to these - the protection of data and personalities

In addition to the basic education required of all students, computer science as a separate, elective course can be offered in lower secondary schools. Its aims are to elaborate the students' knowledge of new information technologies and to develop their skills in dealing with information applications. In comparison to 1985, it is noticeable that the Lander with higher numbers of comprehensive schools have added more computer science courses at this level—with content suitable for all school types, Hauptschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium. (Four Lander restrict computer science to the upper secondary level of Gymnasium alone.) Computer science is generally offered to students either as a free choice or as one option among a restricted group of courses. Lower secondary computer science courses presume the basic education in computers, but their connection with computer science courses in the upper secondary levels of Gymnasium is not always clear. They focus more strongly on practical applications. At this level, technical knowledge about computers and algorithms will be connected with practical applications of the information and communication technologies to questions and problems from the everyday life-world and work-world of the students. One Land introduces ideas about the development and application of computer technologies into a very large range of topics including economy and administration; technology and production; research and science; school and private-sector; and software development. Teachers are also encouraged to combine the problem-solving

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exercises that use programming with information from real-hfe industrial situations. Upper secondary school. In the upper secondary level of the Gymnasium in all Lander, computer science is offered as a subject for restricted or free choice, and it is a defined subject for the Abitur examination. Computer science courses in 6 of the 16 Lander demand special performance in the form of requiring 5-6 lesson hours per week in grades 12-13 rather than the conventional 3 hours per week. For most of the 1980s, objectives for computer science in upper secondary Gymnasium focussed on algorithms and problem-solving by applying the standard procedures, methods, and tools of computer science as well as an expanding range of practical applications. Programming and the mastery of imperative programming languages (such as PASCAL, ELAN, and COMAL) were considered to be important only for the students who were in preparation to enter university studies (Troitzsch, 1993). Since the end of the 1980s, other goals have dominated the list of objectives, including developing students' familiarity with predicative programming languages (for example, PROLOG), making available the software tools that are considered to be of highest efficiency, and, especially, addressing questions about the relation of computers to people and society. Thus, the algorithmic view of a problem handled by the machine is expanded to a view of interactions between people and the methods and tools of computer science (as promoted by the society of mathematics and science education in Germany, MNU in 1992). In all Lander, the computer science curriculum of upper secondary Gymnasium deals with the relationship of computers to humankind and includes exemplary methods and procedures of modeling with computers to study that relationship. At this level, computer science students learn to recognize and assess the possibilities and limits of working with algorithms. Usually, the importance of the information-technology in economy and society is shown to be complementary. In all curricula projects are demanded of the students in computer science courses to give them experience with the preparation of a complex problem. In the late 1980s, to evaluate more than 15 years of offering upper secondary computer science courses, the BLK charged a special group of scientists with studying and producing a report on the progress that had been made in the schools (Bundesministerium fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft, 1987; Projektgruppe Innovationen, 1992). It contains data collections and political conclusions about the development in computer education. Nineteen years after the first computer science course had been introduced in 1972, the

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Permanent Conference of the Ministries of Education standardized examination regulations for "Informatik" as an optional subject of the Abitur (Standige Konferenz, 1991b). Integration Across the Curriculum Since the end of the 1980s, by which time more software had been evaluated and found pedagogically qualified for the support of instruction, practically all the Lander have endeavored to support the computer's use in regular classrooms by offering teacher inservice education and counselling for nearly all subjects. Land use of the national database for educational software, the SODIS which is updated biannually, is of special importance in this regard. In keeping with the individual regulations of the Lander, the SODIS database can be used to distribute suggestions, prepared plans, and consultations regarding the use of the computer for particular subjects. An advantage of this arrangement is that, as a rule, no compulsory prescriptions about the use of educational software for specific lesson-topics become part of the subject syllabi. The qualified use of computers in other subjects also depends upon the commitment of the educational journals and the market-oriented publishing houses. In the 1980s, the activities of school book publishers failed in some ways and caused a setback. However, software developments have recently been expanded by a number of the leading school book publishers. Probably because some journals came out to specifically support the use of the computer in different subjects, 1993 was an especially successful year.

Issues and Developments Equal Gender Opportunities In Germany, as elsewhere, the findings from a pilot study of the federal government and the Lander have illustrated that girls and boys have different interests concerning the computer. The share of the girls who enroll for elective courses in information-technical education is clearly smaller than the share of boys who do and this gap grows as age level increases (Schiersmann, 1987). Proposals for gender-specific access cannot be overlooked (Heppner, 1990; Metz-Gockel, 1991; Schulz-Zander, 1988). Many argue that at least partially separate introduction-courses for girls and boys are demanded (Faulstich-Wieland, 1991; Metz-Gockel, 1991). But at present none of the

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Lander intends to offer any particular introductory or special courses for girls. Instead, suggestions for dealing with the inequality that exists concentrate on practical hints such as how to better consider gender-specific interests and processes in the lessons. Quality of Computer Education In Germany, political discussion about information-technical education is so dominated by issues of educational quality that the task of specifying goals for basic computer education and computer science courses is considered less important. Currently, the politics of educational planning favors the view that students and teachers can do more adequate educational work with improved computer-technology, especially through the flexible use of all sign-systems for numerical and other kinds of data in connection with the optic perception of graphic charts, pictures, and colors. The learning research is making some empirical investigations in this area. Political attitudes are clearly positive concerning improvements in the educational uses of drill-and-practice programs with graphical charts, pictures, and colors at the primary school level. Because some Lander consider general education crucial for promoting (a) learning by independent discovery, (b) problem-oriented thinking, and (c) teamwork competencies, the consultation materials the Land-institutes make available have been elaborated accordingly. IT education can bolster the quality of learning related to these domains. Basic educational questions about the present and the future can be answered more adequately through the newer technologies such as modeling and simulation. The suitability of the software for specific educational concepts is an important criterion for selection that also permits different approaches to be taken. Drill-and-learning programs can be used in the context of expanded and interactive program guidance as well as in flexible contexts for modeling. Among the conventional subjects other than science, examples of discovery learning by simulation of the real world occur in language education. The newer, improved word processing programs also give students more latitude to produce their own writings or to extensively analyze the texts of German language lessons. As an aid to promote quality, in former times the educational administrations required that the products developed in the institutes would be tested systematically before being released on the school market. In 1993, the ministries of education and the Land-institutes developed a procedure of several steps with which to evaluate the numerous products available in the

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free market. According to defined standards, groups of experts nominated by the institutes and the schools provide SODIS with product evaluations and descriptions of their educational uses. Each Land makes the database available to the schools depending upon demand and is free to change the format of description and evaluation for special purposes. This arrangement demonstrates how a federally organized system can be used positively with collective bases (characterized by regional peculiarities) to promote quality in the use of computers in education. Educational Software Software can serve the purpose of leading to more open worlds of learning. Without denying the need for conventional kinds of software altogether, many experts from the educational administrations support a change of paradigm from more closed towards more open software. For decades now, the educational demand to increase student-oriented approaches to learning has grown in acceptance. In contrast to teacher-centered approaches, they are believed to offer more comprehensive and sense-cohering guides to student learning. Supporting this idea, media education has long pointed to combining the use of different audiovisual and textual possibilities for layout. The development of software on mighty storage devices like CD-ROMs with multimedia-hypertext environments is, however, restricted to just three pilots projects of the BLK. Two of them, scheduled to run from 1991 to 1994, have the goal of presenting all of the available materials on a topic in all of the ways and at every level possible. Thereby students will be able to work their own way through the maze almost independently. The development of this kind of CD-ROM is extraordinarily costly and time-consuming. Demand is expected to be quite broad. In the third project, scheduled from 1993 to 1995, the CD-ROM will be used as an extended encyclopedia for a topic (analogous to some French and English projects with CD-ROMs). Priorities Primary education. Here, the question of how to introduce informationtechnical education into the lesson structure grows more pressing. It took some time to realize that computers would be present in meaningful ways in the daily lives of primary school children. For example, many young children play with computer toys such as Nintendo at home. In any event, educational software is clearly being used more and more often in primary school classrooms. These facts lead to supporting a systematic introduction of the computer at the primary level, either as an import to regular subject lessons or perhaps in the future as a separate, beginning unit for the basic IT curriculum.

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Educational materials. The development of more diverse and user-friendly software (such as Office Bundle) is having a strong impact on the schools. Linking leisure electronics with school computer technology could have similar effects. The German commercial software industry should be urged to produce multimedia electronic books, starting with the encyclopedia, and to shift the production of pure leisure games for the mass market to include more intelligent educational games for the PC. Of course, whether educational materials are developed or not hinges on their simultaneous appeal to a broadly-invested consumer's market. For example, despite the efforts of the model projects that the BLK devoted to investigating new technologies like picture-plates and Btx-applications, they did not get used in the schools in the 1980s because they were not sufficiently accepted in the consumer markets. The publishing houses for educational software had no incentive to install and strengthen the new forms of production that would be required to create them. Publishers resist developing multimedia software as long as they expect that the substitution of the existing PCs with multimedia applications will not be due for some years. Likewise, the Lander are reticent to put much emphasis on multimedia development beyond a few model projects. New approaches to project work. Recently, the attention to new forms of teaching has grown, especially toward project work that promotes more open learning and to the intensified participation of parents in the schools. While such contexts may overlap, most can clearly be seen as compatible with several and various corresponding uses of the computer. In 1993, educational administrators declined to systematically develop suitable educational software for interactive project work. Rather, they observed the market and saw moving ever closer the vision of a student using computers as a 'personal assistant' and a key to the knowledge of the world. Certainly in the last decade and perhaps before, educational administrators learned that scheduling new technologies in the schools needs to be estimated further into the future than futurologists had originally proposed. BLK pilot projects hold the connection and promise for developing educational goals in this direction. Networks. Local school networks and the development of regional networks became an important topic for Land-institutes in 1993. Usually local networks began as a result of demands internal to the schools. In the early 1990s, for example, schools in Rheinland-Pfalz wanted to abandon the teaching of typewriting in favor of word processing. In 1993, a national working group of Land-institute members was established to promote the

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introduction of local area networks in education."^ Several Lander wish in addition to connect as many secondary schools as possible into their statewide networks in order to encourage consultation and educational exchange by email between schools. Also in 1993, a pilot study was developed to explore time-equal groupworking in regional networks. This set-up is eventually supposed to be expanded across Europe through wide area networks. However, the increasing use of computer-mediated communication and online data handling in the schools can only be expected to move slowly (Ballier and Witten, 1993; Koerber and Peters, 1991; Rommel, 1993). Education databases. Until the late 1980s, only a few secondary schools had attempted any intense data handling activities with external commercial databases. Then a two-year pilot project of the BLK produced several 10-MB databases on disk to be used for offline data retrieval in history, economics, politics, and geography classes. In 1992-93, several hundred schools in Bayern began a pilot project to handle online some full-text databases of ecological, geographic, economic, or press agency information. In general, the subject teachers who refer to the data of social affairs (such as the topics just mentioned or politics and some history) are more interested in the online data retrieval from external databases; teachers in math, science, and the arts seem to find it less easy to apply in their lessons. In reality though, only the most technology-involved teachers are eager to handle new databases. When press-agency databases of news were made available to the schools for free, only one secondary school arranged for online retrievals. Telematics. The growing interest in networks among the authorities led to a special program of pilot projects for telematics in education. It came about as a follow-up to four Lander feasibility studies and has the overall goal of supporting all kinds of telematics activities in schools and classrooms. Specifically, the pilot projects are attempting to develop close and quick connections among the Land-institutes, the local audio-visual centers for education (picture sites at district or city offices), and the teachers in the classroom to enable the online accessing and handling of external databases via telematics networks. The Lander also support the use of closed, regional telematics networks to advise teachers on new information technologies. These pilot projects may serve to identify the prerequisites that would be needed to organize a cooperative telematics network at the national level.

This would accompany a separate German national network (parallel to the expanding regional Land networks) with e-mail or Datex/BTX of private communication network suppliers.

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Suggestions for the Future Federal and state politics regarding education leave no room for an expansion of the subject computer science in upper secondary level at present. Therefore, to employ as many of the different usages of computers and teleconmiunications as possible, it is necessary to develop specific lesson concepts. The learning research must improve the system's ability to coordinate differentiated concepts. Simple information development with the PDA, parallel work with laptops and printed learning materials, small group work with several data files onscreen, new kinds of group work with modeling and LCD overhead display, group work with wide and local area networks, changes of the location of learning with different media-all need to be explored now for their usefulness in educational lessons as it was previously the case with computers. To do so, the corresponding appliances must not only be present in the schools, but also in the centers for teacher inservice training and the offices of the education-administration. And educational research should elaborate the strengths and weaknesses of different concepts for using the newly-developed appliances. Furthermore and step by step, new forms of organization with computers and themes should be realized in the schools that improve their reference to the home environment. Both the full consideration of the information and communication technologies in all sites of teacher education and good cooperation among researchers, practitioners, administrators, and politicians remain necessary conditions if IT education and development is to succeed. Even though other issues concerning school development have come to the fore in the Bund and Lander politics of the 1990s, the new information and communication technologies sustain their importance in the educational system. The use of computers in all sectors of life-exposing everyone to experiences with them-assures this fact.

References Arbeitsgnippe Bildungswesen am Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung (Hrsg.). (1990). Das Bildungswesen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Reinbeck bei Hamburg, Rowohlt. Balier, R., & Witten, H. (Koordination). (1993). "Datenfemiibertragung fur Schulen" LOG - IN, Informatik und Computer in der Schule 13(3): 10-53. Berlin: LOG IN-Verlag. Bocker, H.D., & Gunzenhauser, R. (1993). Mensch-Computer-Kommuniukation. Heidelberg: Springer. Bosler, U., & Ziebarth, W. (Planung und Konzeption). (1992). Schulcomputerjahrbuch Ausgabe 93/94. Hannover und Stuttgart: Metzler Schulbuch and B.G. Teubner.

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Bosler, U., Frey, K., Hosseus, W., Kremer, M., Schermer, P., & Wolgast, H. (Hrsg.). (1985). Mikroelektronik und neue Medien im Bildungswesen. (IPN-Arbeitsberichte 56). IPN Institut fiir die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften, Kiel. Bundesministerium fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft. (1986). Konzeption und Mafinahmen des Bundesministeriums fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft zur Informationstechnischen Bildung und Nutzung neuer Informations- und Kpmmunikationstechniken im Bildungswesen, Grundlagen und Perspektiven fur Bildung und Wissenschaft 13. Bundesministerium fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft, Bildung an der Schwelle zur Informationsgesellschaft, Bonn. Bundesminister fiir Bildung und Wissenschaft (Hrsg.). (1987). Mode live rsuche in der Bewdhrung, Bericht zur Umsetzung, Studien Bildung und Wissenschaft 78. Bad Honnef: Bock. BLK zur Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung. (1983). Modellversuche zur Informatik sowie zur Bereitstellung und Erprobung audio-visueller Medien fiir die Schule, Bericht iiber eine Auswertung von Gerhard Hey und Karsten Weber. Bonn: Kollen. BLK fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung. (1984). Rahmenkonzept fiir die Informationstechnische Bildung in Schule in Ausbildung. Bund-Lander-Kommission fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung, Bonn. BLK fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung. (1987). Gesamtkonzept fiir die Informationstechnische Bildung, Reihe Materialien zur Bildungsplanung 16. Bund-LanderKommission fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung, Bonn. Faulstich-Wieland, H. (1991). Koedukation. Enttduschte Hqffhung. WissenschaftHche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, S. 169-87. Fauser, R., & Schreiber. N. (1990). Ausgangsbedingungen fiir die informtions- und kommunikationstechnische Grundbildung bei Lehrenden im Sekundarbereich I Arbeitsbericht 7. Forschungsstelle fiir Informationstechnische Bildung Konstanz. Hansen, K.-H., & Lang, M. (1993), Computer in der Schule: Ergebnisse der deutschen lEAStudie Phase I, 1989. IPN-Arbeitsberichte 56, Institut fiir die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften (IPN), Kiel. Heppner, G. (1990), Computer: interessieren tdt's mich schon, aber... Bielefeld: Kleine. Klemm, K., Rolff, H.-G., & Tillmann, K.-J. (1985). Bildung fur das Jahr 2000. Reinbeck bei Hamburg, Rowohlt. Knauss, G. (1986). Aktivitaten von Bund und Landern zur Einfiihrung der Informationstechnischen Bildung in Bund und Landern in Informatik-Fachberichte 129: Informatikgrundbildung in Schule und Beruf p. 29-33. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer. Koerber, B., & Peters, I.-R. (Koordination). (1991). "Schulen im Netz" LOG - IN, Informatik und Computer in der Schule, l(6):3-45. Oldenbourg: Miinchen. Landesinstitut fiir Schule und Weiterbildung (Hrsg.). (1993). Mddchen und Neue Technologien. Soest: Soester Verlagskontor. Lang, M. (1994). "Computemutzung in naturwissenschaftlichen und anderen Fachem." In H. Behrend, GDCP (Ed.), Zur Didaktik der Physik und Chemie. Alsberg: Leuchtturm. Lang, M., & Schulz-Zander, R. (1994). "Informationstechnische Bildung in allgemeinbildenden Schulen." Pp. 309-353 in H.-G. Rolff, K.-O. Bauer, K. Klemm, H. Pfeiffer, & R. SchulzZander (Hrsg.), Jahrbuch fiir Schulentwicklung 8. Weinheim: Juwenta, S. 3 Metz-Gockel, S. (1991). Mddchen, Jungen und Computer. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen. Peschke, R., Hullen, G., & Diemer, W.R. (1984). Sachstandsberichte zum Informatikunterricht in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Anforderungen an neue Lerninhalte Band 2. Hessisches Institut fiir Bildungsplanung und Schulentwicklung, Wiesbaden. Peschke, R. (1990). "Grundideen des Informatikunterricht" LOG - IN, Informatik und Computer in der Schule 6{10): 25-33.

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Projektgruppe Innovationen im Bildungswesen. (1992). Informationsschrift iiber Mode live rsuc he im Bildungswesen. Bund-Lander-Kommission fiir Bildungsplanung und Forschungsforderung, Bonn. Rolff, H.-G., & Zimmermann, P. (Hrsg.). (1985). Neue Medien und Lernen, Herausforderungen, Chancen und Gefahren. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz. Rommel, H.-G. (1984). "Neue Medien-Herausforderung an Bund und Lander: Informatik als Herausfordening an Schule und Ausbildung." Informatik-Fachberichte 90: 15-26, BerlinHeidelberg-New York-Tokyo, Springer. Rommel, H.-G. (1987). "Development of Educational Software in Germany (Federal Republic)." Pp. 125-138 in T. Plomp, K. van Deursen, & J. Moonen (Ed.), CAL for Europe, ComputerAssisted Learning for Europe. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland. Rommel, H.-G. (1991). "Deutschland und die Telekommunikation" LOG - IN, Informatik und Computer in der Schule, 11(3): 25-28. Rommel, H.-G. (1993). Neue Informationstechnologien in der Allgemeinbildung Deutschland, April 1992, (Dokumente Kommission der Europaischen Gemeinschaften: Neue Informationstechnologien in der Allgemeinbildung). Amt fiir amtliche Veroffendichungen der Europaischen Gemeinschaften, Luxembourg. Schiersmann, C. (1987). Computerkultur und weiblicher Lebenszusammenhang, Studien zu Bildung und Wissenschaft 49. Bad Honnef: Bock. Schulz-Zander, R. (1988). "Madchenbildung und Neue Technologien." LOG-IN, I: 10-15. Standige Konferenz der Kultusminister der Lander. (1991a). Neue Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken in der Schule. Standige Konferenz der Kultusminister der Lander in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn. Standige Konferenz der Kultusminister der Lander. (1991b). Priifungsanforderungen in der AbiturprUfung Informatik. Standige Konferenz der Kultusminister der Lander in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn. Troitzsch, K.G., et al. (Hrsg.). (1993). Informatik als Schlussel zur Qualifikation. BerlinHeidelberg-New York: Springer. Weishaupt, H., Steinert, B. & Baumert, J. (1991). Bildungsforschung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Studien Bildung und Wissenschaft 98. Bad Honnef: Bock.

Dr. Rommel is a member of EURICLEE-D and associated with the Institute for Science Education (IPN, Institut fiir die Padagogik der Naturwissenschaften) at the University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 62, D 24098 Kiel, Germany. Dr. Lang (Translation) is a member of IPN.

GEORGIA KONTOGIANNOPOULOU-POLYDORIDES, STELIOS GEORGAKAKOS, AND ANTONIS ZAVOUDAKIS

GREEK SCHOOLS AND COMPUTER EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS

The Greek educational system is highly centralized and is based on the principles of the "Greek humanism" which is a blend of the classical Greek tradition, the Greek Orthodox Christianity and the influences of the German idealism. The introduction of computer education in the eighties is based mainly on the policies of the European Community with priority in technical and vocational education. The accession of computer education (informatics) as an independent subject followed the model of the traditional subjects in the curriculum. The content of informatics is characterized by the instruction of programming with emphasis on paper and pencil exercises and the technical theoretical issues of computing, as shown in the results of the lEA-Computers in Education research. The replacement of this "technical approach" by the adoption of the "integrated approach" (using the computer across the curriculum) appears to be the first goal of the new educational policy on informatics education in the nineties. The extent of the realization of this goal is subject to evaluation.

In the early 1980s, when the issue of computers in education evolved, Greece was experiencing a double euphoria. Full participation in the European Community (now European Union) had begun in 1981. In addition, the country had a new government with a completely different political orientation than before, socialism. In the mid-1990s, Greece is a country with fairly limited resources struggling to achieve a balance between the demands set forth by the national and international economic and political imperatives. The demands of its people for an increasingly better life are secured mainly by provisions of the State. With that as a point of departure, and given the centrally controlled and funded educational system, any major decision regarding education and the funding involved has to be considered at the highest levels of decision making. Issues of potential political expediency such as the provision of computers in education are by far within such political practice. 223 T. Plomp et al (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

lli-lAl.

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GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, STELIOS GEORGAKAKOS, & ANTONIS ZAVOUDAKIS

The Greek Education System The Educational Paradigm The education system of Greece is highly centraHzed. Most decision making and formulations of policy are controlled by the Ministry of National Education. Historically, the education of children in Greece has been modelled after the German and French systems of education and has focussed on transmitting and acquiring both fixed knowledge and national cultural heritage while adopting traditional teaching methods. More specifically, the prevailing education paradigm in Greece has the characteristics of what Martin McLean (1990) has termed as "humanism" with a few elements of "encyclopedism". Classic Greek has traditionally dominated language teaching and Greek Orthodox Christianity has penetrated with a moral-relevatory approach which has influenced the epistemological view on which knowledge production and education have been based. This orientation has been coupled with "too much factual rote learning and too much formal instruction, with little opportunity for class discussion or independent work" (McLean, 1990, p. 109). The humanist tradition has been reinforced by a political position in the historical nationalist movement. "The school of Philosophy of the University of Athens has been the center for the preservation of the humanist tradition" (Mouzelis, 1978). A tradition, which according to Mouzelis, is based on "German idealism and legalism" dominating Greek education ever since it has been influencing the educational system's development by German expert advice. A historian, analyst of Greek education, Dimaras (1978, pp. 12-13 ) states: "a purely German concept for education was transplanted into Greece. Wilhelm von Humbolt's ideas dominated Greek education in all levels. His idealistic principles, based on Greek humanism, allied with nationalism and controlled by a centralized service, were in accordance with the aspirations of a new nation trying to establish its relation to a glorious past and also suited the aims of its foreign administration. All this established a cultural dependence of Greece to Germany which lasted for over a century". Encyclopedic universalism, to the extent that has influenced Greek humanism, can be traced to the first French Law for education as well as to the prevailing educational model of the nineteenth century German Gymnasium. McLean's (1990, pp. 72-79) description for the German Gymnasium includes the following: "teachers appointed and controlled by the State . . . students prepared for the examination which gave entry to the University . . . an academic school with a heavy bias towards language study," all three holding for the Greek Gymnasium (lower secondary) as well as the Lyceum (upper secondary). Furthermore, McLean's description states:

GREEK SCHOOLS & COMP. EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS 225

The Gymnasium . . . would prepare for the humanist university . . . . Creative writing may have httle place and grammar may be over-estimated . . . . The detail of textual analysis has become so intense that students have little conception of the overall patterns of literacy achievement.... Little opportunity for the reflection of subcultural interests in the content of schooling. (McLean, 1990, pp. 78-9, 83) McLean is not aware of the similarities or it was not his intention to identify them. To the Greek researcher of education though, McLean's description of the fundamental characteristics of the German Gymnasium mirror identical characteristics of the Greek general secondary education schools. Enrollments, Students, School Types and Funding Figure 1 shows the structure of the school types through which students in the Greek education system progress. Preschool education may last for one or two years and is not compulsory. Children typically enter primary school at the age of 5-1/2 years. After completing 6 years of elementary education, all children are enrolled at the lower secondary level of education which lasts three years.

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GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, STELIOS GEORGAKAKOS, & ANTONIS ZAVOUDAKIS

University

Undergraduate 4to6years

Tertiary Education

I

Tech. Vbc. Sch.

Technical

i

Goieral

\Axational

i

Lycea

Lycea

i

UppCT secondary education I I

Lower secondary education (Gymnasium) 3 Years

k I

Age

100 percent of an age group

Note: The width of the "steps" in preschool and secondary education represent rough estimates arrived at from the Ministry of Education. Figure 1. Structure of the Formal Education System, Greece 1991-1992.

Primary and lower secondary education comprise the compulsory school during which students follow a uniform curriculum of general education.

GREEK SCHOOLS & COMP. EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS 227

Upper secondary schools are differentiated in: general education schools, technical schools, vocational schools, and comprehensive schools. Approximately 70 % of the students are enrolled in general upper secondary schools. Table 1 provides data on the number of students and teachers at all educational levels.

Table 1. Enrollments in Formal Education, Greece 1991 -1992

Number of Students^

Number of Institutions

Number of Teachers

Average no of Students per Institution

Student/Teacher Ratio

Kindergarten'^

134,000

5,615

8,200

24,1

16.3

Primary

791,000

7,660

39,000

103

20.3

Secondary Lower Upper

439,000 423,000"

1,820 1,710

28,000 30,000

241 247

15.7 14.1

Tertiary TEI University

73,000 119,000

12 17

5,000 5,900

6,083 7,000

14.6 20.2

Notes: ^ = The data given refer to the 1991-1992 school year except for enrollment data for TEI and Universities which refer to 1990; ^ = Including 2 year Technical-Vocational Schools; ^ = Data for Kindergarten concern only those institutions, public or private, under the authority of the Ministry of Education. Source: Ministry of Education, Adopted from Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al. (1994).

All students in the general upper secondary school follow common courses for the first two grades. In the third grade, students follow a core of common courses plus one out of four option streams that acts as preparation for entrance examinations to particular fields of higher education. In the upper secondary technical and vocational schools, specialized course work is offered to students. The same is true of the multi-branch or comprehensive schools (where various specializations exist in the form of tracks). These schools were established in the 1970s and the 1980s to serve a small percentage of secondary school students. It is only recently that they have grown to contain approximately 1/3 of the total student population in upper secondary education.

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In 1991, approximately 65% of the 17 to 18-year-old age group graduated from upper secondary education, and about 50% qualified to participate in the entrance examinations for higher education. Higher education includes university education and higher technical and vocational education. In 1993, 20% of the secondary education graduates entered higher education. According to an elaboration of the data available from the Ministry of Education, the success rate for application in that year was 26%. That is, of the approximately 160,000 students who applied, 41,000 gained entry. Higher technical and vocational education entails three years of coursework and examinations in the country's Technological Educational Institutes (TEI). In most disciplines university education is completed after four years of coursework and examinations. Engineering requires five years; medicine requires six. Postgraduate courses are recently in the process of being established. Previously, only a small number of doctoral degrees had been awarded. With no postgraduate coursework required, they had been based wholly upon the completion of a doctoral theses. Since 1993, postgraduate programs at a level equivalent to the Master's have been initiated in a number of university departments. They combine professional as well as research orientations in various specializations. There are two sectors in the Greek education system: the public sector which includes all university and higher education and 93% of basic schools (pre-primary, primary and secondary); and the private sector which includes 7% of basic education, a plethora of non-classified post-secondary training schools, as well as cranmiing courses corresponding to the secondary school level. Public education at all levels is financed by the State budget. In 1991, the education budget was 8.3% of the Total State Budget and 4.3% of the Gross Domestic Product. The educational budget is centrally managed by the Ministry of Education. It is appropriated to educational institutions as allocations for teaching personnel, textbooks, buildings, equipment, and some supplies. Local government funds are expected to deal mainly with building repairs and services and with teacher substitutes, although the latter assignments also depend upon approval by the Ministry of Education. Public education is guaranteed by the Constitution and has been provided free of charge continuously since the 1960s. Moreover, a consensus exists in Greek society that all educational activities and expenses should be provided by the State. As a result, the demand placed upon the state budget to increase the expenditures for education has been growing. Especially in the last 10 years, during which public deficit was also on the rise, the demands for educational spending have exceeded the capacity of the state budget to respond. A number of sources estimate that considerable private funds are directed to education at the primary and secondary school levels. These funds go to private primary and secondary schools, private cramming courses preparing students for higher education entrance examinations, foreign languages, and

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post secondary courses outside the education system. Remarkably high private funds in the form of foreign currency for fees and Hving expenses are spent by parents for university studies abroad (KontogiannopoulouPolydorides, et al., 1994, p. 2520). Teachers The teachers who fill public school and higher education posts are appointed by the Ministry of Education. Personnel for higher education are selected on a competitive basis via a strict, institutionalized procedure. Public school personnel are hired in temporal order from waiting lists of priority applicants. The waiting list referred to as the "Teachers Yearbook", contains the names and specializations of the prospective teachers to be appointed to the schools. To qualify as a teacher in pre-primary or primary school requires a degree granted by a university department of education. Secondary school teachers are drawn from the pool of university graduates in the discipline that corresponds to the subject to be taught. In other words, holding a specific university degree~for example, in mathematics or in physics or in Greek literature—is the only qualification required for secondary school teaching personnel. Their preparatory education may only consist of the specific courses demanded by their disciplines. If any additional work in the field of education is required, it is provided by departments within the university's school of philosophy. Due to large numbers of university graduates from every discipline in recent years, teachers at all levels of general education are in excessive supply. Inservice training to supplement or update the initial university education for teachers has always been extremely limited. Data for the 1980s indicate that inservice training outlets had reached an annual number of only 5,000 teachers during the decade. This training scheme might require a long time indeed to provide support for all of the approximately 100,000 teachers of elementary and secondary education. In 1992, Law 2009 revised the training scheme and reduced the inservice training period from 9 months to 3 or 4 months. Yet, even with the turnover rate tripled, it will still take 7 years to provide inservice training to all existing teaching personnel. And that estimate does not take into account the training of newly employed teachers or the needs for retraining. A recent law development includes training schemes as part-time activity outside the school hours, a policy which could increase inservice training rates considerably.

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Curriculum Centralization and uniformity are the main characteristics of curriculum practice. A nationwide uniform curriculum exists for all primary and secondary schools; the scope and detailed content of the curriculum are decided by the Ministry of National Education. A unique formal syllabus for each grade is prepared by the Pedagogic Institute and ratified by the Ministry. There is a unique textbook for every subject for each grade. Textbooks are prepared by individuals or teams following specific guidelines" (G. KontogiannopoulouPolydorides, et al., 1994, p. 2521). The intent of this highly controlled procedure is "said to be to cope with the disparity or lack of [training in] teaching methodology" (G. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, et al., 1994, p. 2521). "The subjects taught in general education are common and compulsory for all students in primary and in the most part of secondary education, and include a wide range of elementary or more advanced knowledge of language and humanities, mathematics, science, social science and religion as well as . . . physical education" (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, et al., 1994, p. 2521). The content of the subjects taught is overwhelmingly academic, drawn traditionally from university content knowledge, as a simplified version of selected topics taught at that level. Completely related to the above practices is the curriculum content decision making process, traditionally controlled by University Professors serving as heads in the Pedagogic Institute and/or members of curriculum and textbook committees. In recent years, participation in such committees has been extended extensively to teachers. The implementation of the syllabus in all schools is monitored by the director of each school as well as district educational counselors. They are expected to control the whole teaching process by means of a register in which the teachers write down what they teach in the classroom. The teaching approach followed is traditional. It is frontal, following the Minstry's textbook in a very strict way, and seems to constitute the main form of instructional practice at all levels. It is expected that a gradual variation in teaching methods might occur at primary level when graduates from the new Education Departments at the University level will enter service (due to the upgrading of their initial training). These Education Departments were established in the middle 1980s but their graduates have not been hired in schools as a result of the waiting list. Evaluation in general and examinations in particular have a traditional character. Students are expected to reproduce the content of their textbooks either orally or in writing. Students advance from one grade to the next almost automatically in compulsory education. Beyond compulsory schooling students are promoted on the basis of grade point averages as a result of day to day oral or written examination as well as final written examinations.

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Entrance to higher education and allocation to a university department or to a higher technical and vocational institute is decided on the basis of national examinations organized by the Ministry of Education. These examinations follow the essay format, institutionalized to closely match the textbooks of the corresponding upper high school subjects they cover. Students at the university are evaluated at the end of each academic semester by the individual professors in charge of the courses and the supervision of the laboratory work. Evaluation may take the form of a written or oral examination. Students have traditionally been seldom expected to produce a written paper for a course in most fields of study. Recently though, there is a new trend which points to a changing pattern as more and more new faculty members introduce the practice of projects and papers. Students are granted a University degree after having completed course requirements and after being enrolled for at least four years. The Initiation of Computer Education: Policies In recent years, technological integration and cohesion imperatives have fostered the heavy burden of introducing computers in education at a much faster pace than the state run schools in the country were prepared to achieve. At the same time, economic cohesion and integration require that Greece explores and expands new markets into which other European Union countries are already looking.' With the high degree of competing political and economic demands facing Greece, not to mention an education system that is centrally controlled, any major decision regarding education and funding must be considered at the highest levels of decision-making. Efforts to integrate computers in education, an issue of potential political expediency, falls well within such political practice. At the time, when computers in education first became an issue, only a small number of computers were used mainly in the private sector, some research institutes, and in a small fraction of the public sector. Practically no computers were employed at the level of primary and secondary education. Government policy adopted (in principle) some of the recommendations set forth by the European Union (1983). European Union policies are general statements of intent; they nevertheless masterfully promote, though covertly, a model emphasizing educational use in the introduction of new technologies in education. Two out of the four These new markets definitely include Eastern European countries, a number of which are situated in the Balkan peninsula and are, one way or another, involved in current "destabilizing" events. Needless to say, a number of factors would render the Balkan peninsula countries with a likelihood for economic and technological liaisons with Greece more than any other group of countries.

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main points of recommendation refer to the use of new technologies in teaching, curricula, as well as the training of (existing) teachers and the teacher trainers (Chapter 2 in Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides et al., 1992). The official policy Greece adopted in the 1980s can be summarized simply. High level professional education would be provided at the university level, and specialized training would be provided at the country's Technological Educational Institutes for higher education. Some lower level training in computers would be initiated in the technical and vocational upper secondary schools and then later extended to general lower secondary education. Finally, opportunities for teachers' initial and inservice training would be increased (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, et al., 1992, p. 22). The rationale generally used to promote the introduction of informatics in Greek secondary education cited several potential benefits. For one thing, adopting guidelines from the recommendations of the European Union could also give access to EU funding for specific training programs in the new technologies. Training high level personnel to occupy positions at all levels of the occupational hierarchy should ensure the appropriate transfer and use of technology. Greece already had a number of university level professionals that had been educated abroad and more recently in Greece2 in computer and related sciences. The rationale adopted in Greece can be traced via international organization reports including official EU policy documents, United Nations reports, and others, revealing that the goals and the approach set forth are not the prerogative of the Government in the 1980s. The political technological complex of agencies which promote policies in international fora participated indirectly in decision making. It is necessary to note that important issues emerge from the adoption of an internationally held rationale: they spring from the fact that positions of international fora are so explicitly taken into account in the initiation and formulation of educational policy.^ Furthermore, no one seems to worry about the possible downgrading of large segments of the work force within an international division of the new technologies labor in which Greek working people are not likely to be the "thinkers". This is a Computer engineering and informatics science courses were first established at the University of Patras in 1980, followed by a Research Institute of Computer Technology at the same university. The University of Crete, too, was an early pioneer in the establishment of computer departments. Between 1991 and 1993, four more technological departments were created to award joint degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering. At the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki, university courses in informatics grew out of traditional science departments and were established in 1993. Interestingly enough, this happens at a time when a socialist government is in charge, a government which has traditionally and persistently opposed any transfer of policies and/or practices from abroad, and any attempt to have national policy making influenced by international forces of any kind. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that neither the intellectuals nor the teachers (unionized or not), normally very vocal and always critical, have made any stated objection in this influx of strategic goals stemming from supranational decision centers. Nor do they oppose the adoption of goals which have-for now at least—a rather vocational character at most levels of the Greek educational system, which has always been geared to offer the type of general education they normally support.

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very interesting development since educational theorists and critics have never ceased to relate most problems of the educational system with the international division of labor and/or (internationally operating) mechanisms of control. The interplay of the imperatives of the new technology, the Socialist Government introducing the policies, and the European Union reinforcing an international approach, has achieved what could be called a * passive * consensus: one of the very rare ones in education related policies to be achieved in the country. The private sector very quickly developed training courses in new technologies by transforming existing vocational courses serving less profitable and sometimes obscure vocations. Of course, the small scale of Greek productive units matched the technologies of the PC's best (Ktenas, 1991). Microcomputers started being introduced quite extensively into the private sector and a small number of public agencies (though at a much slower pace than in other countries of the European Union), while mainframe computers had rarely been part of the operations even in large-scale units. The private sector training schools also managed, through their own advertisements in the mass media, to create a quiet but massive campaign among the public that promotes the use of the computer and lends support to the government's less publicized efforts in that direction.^ Within this context, computer education policy decisions at the Ministry of Education were based on the premise that the education system should provide the middle level personnel. And this was a matter of priority stressed by a number of related documents forwarded to the Greek Ministry by experts and diplomatic sources alike (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, et al., 1992, p. 24). Supplying the appropriate manpower at the appropriate levels was expected to result in a more productive ratio between the university level expertise and the lower level personnel; a more balanced ratio was considered necessary for achieving competitiveness within the European Union and Greece was advised to take steps in training low level personnel. In short, the computer, or rather informatics, has appeared as a sine qua non in the government's rhetoric about the education system. And for almost ten years, no questioning of this line of thought has been posed by either practitioners or educational theory analysts. What has not been widely discussed though, is the approach to be taken when introducing computers in education. Such an issue is directly related to the question "in what context".

This resulted mainly from the advertisements that appeared on television and in the newspapers. To begin each new school year, the advertisements were also greatly intensified in the fall which happened to coincide with annual announcements about university entrance examination results and the 100,000 "failures" who did not pass the exams.

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Policies to Introduce Computers in Secondary Education and their context The initiation of Informatics in the education system was part of the government's upgrading technical and vocational education in the mid-1980s. It was implemented mainly on two fronts: first, as new specializations in the upper secondary technical and vocational schools, and, second, as part of the innovation introduced with the establishment of the new comprehensive upper secondary schools. Informatics in the comprehensive schools was introduced as a subject per se or as a field of specialization in which low level employees might be trained. The chronology for the introduction of the computer in the above mentioned schools can be summarized as follows: 1984-86: Pilot introduction in 8 technical and vocational upper secondary schools. 1987-92: Introduction in approximately 100 technical and vocational schools and all 25 comprehensive schools. 1992-95: Introduction to the rest 150 technical and vocational schools and any new comprehensive school to be created (Doukides, 1992, p.50). The initiation of informatics at the secondary level followed the time frame of establishing of specialization courses at the university level. It is necessary to note at this point that technical and vocational education, ever since the 1970s, had employed in its ranks, as teachers, graduates of the prestigious Technical Universities of the country, who were hit by unemployment by the end of the seventies. It was mainly these engineers, along with mathematicians who either took training or trained themselves as computer specialists, who were the ones to work for the planning and implementation of informatics in the educational system. It was experts such as these who formed the nucleus of a key group at the Ministry of Education, the Working Group for the Introduction of Informatics in Education. In charge of all course content and hardware and software policies, the Working Group operated and still operates under the supervision of a consultative committee comprised of university professors of computer science. Within this context, computer education and use, under the name of Informatics, is taught as simplified reproduction of the classes that had been initiated a few years earlier at the university level. Therefore, informatics was introduced as an independent subject. It was not introduced as an educational tool. Nor was it introduced, as the initial goals for computers in education had advertised, as a new technology geared to foster production through the increase of productivity and product competitiveness. Indeed, the educational goals set forth by the Greek Government, as they evolve in the Presidential Decree include (Government Gazette, 1987): • Introduce a beginner's familiarization with the computer.

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•

Provide secondary school graduates with sufficient training, so that they can be integrated in the production process, which is constantly transformed through the use of new technologies. • Encourage specialization of the future workforce in the technical use of the computers. The features of computer education in the lower secondary general schools is of special interest for two reasons: First, because it comprises the most extended number of schools presently involved with computers, and, second, because lower general education is compulsory and addresses itself to the whole corresponding age group. The chronology for the introduction of the computer in the lower secondary schools can be summarized as follows: 1984-87: Pilot introduction in 22 lower secondary schools. 1988-92: Introduction in approximately 420 schools. 1992-95: Introduction to all (about 1800) schools (Doukides, 1992, p. 46). The introduction of Informatics in general education proceeds as an extension and transfer of developments in technical and vocational education. This was no doubt due to the fact that the members of the Working Group, which was in charge of all course content, hardware, and software policies, were to a large extent engineers, teachers in upper secondary technical and vocational education. It might be said that having the computer activities in lower secondary general education modelled after those in technical and vocational education constituted another interesting reversal of traditional practice: it is widely accepted among Greek education theorists that technical and vocational education was in fact modelled after the abstract, nonspecific, and theoretical aspects of general education. Replicating the technical and vocational model in lower secondary general education meant the introduction of traditional computer literacy courses and a programming language, usually BASIC. The legalities in order to implement these decisions required that (a) the procedures of course approval and adoption had to be followed, including mainly the procedural sequence followed by the Pedagogical Institute (the Ministry's official curriculum and textbook developer) and (b) implementation had to secure the training and appointment of teachers and the acquisition of textbooks, software, and hardware. This is an interesting deviation from the institutional procedures holding for all school subject matters. This deviation allowed for some further developments, as we shall point out later on. However, in contrast to most existing or potential school subjects, computer education lacked a common sense body of knowledge with regards to the topic, textbooks, and an official and elaborated curricula as well as any specialized prospective teachers. Nevertheless, the Working Group and the

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policymakers at the Ministry felt compelled to proceed with some speed. To implement informatics education and appoint the necessary teaching personnel, the Ministry adopted a set of practices unconventional for Greek educational policy. More specifically: First, the Division of Secondary Education Studies^, within which the Working Group was (and is) operating, surveyed the lower secondary schools of the country. Next, information was collected as to which schools employed teachers involved in the use of computers and programming. Information was also collected regarding schools with available building space to be utilized as a computer laboratory. (Never before in the recent history of Greek education have schools been surveyed as to the existence of professional and resource potential for the purpose of introducing an innovation). The information collected was coupled to additional criteria such as the proximity to other schools, which might thus gain access to the use of computers. Another criterion was the proximity to available computer labs in schools of technical and vocational education. (This is also an unconventional procedure, in conflict with the prevailing ideology and practice of distributing thinly whatever available resources in all schools or none). Finally, consideration was given to ensure that the distribution of computer labs in the country will not be geared to locating them only in schools of the major urban centers (Working Group, 1988, p. 29). Of course, the major guiding principle of computer implementation in general education was a restricted budget. In the late 1980s, the budget allowed for 90 general lower secondary schools to be supplied with laboratory equipment (consisting of eight personal computers each). Today, a total of 420 general lower secondary schools have access to such a lab. This represents about 1/4 of all lower secondary schools. The content for computer education in lower secondary general schools was mainly defined on the basis of the above processes as hardware description, programming principles, and a programming language, all of which defined Informatics as a separate subject matter.

The State of the Art It may go without saying that the hardware and software available in a country as well as the general content of education will shape that country's computer innovations in education. As a result of the situation and procedures described in the last section, the substance of computer education in the secondary schools of Greece, taught in the form of a separate subject called informatics, includes hardware description, programming principles, and a programming language. Equally important to a successful integration is the 5

This Division plays a very important role in the Ministry's operations since it is the agency which keeps constant communication with the schools of the country in order to provide them with the decisions taken centrally to be implemented by the schools.

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presence of teachers who can use computers and develop an educational practice of using them. In this section, the 1992 data provided by the second stage of the lEA Computers in Education study in Greece will be used to describe the state of the art in Greek schools regarding hardware, software, teaching training, and curricular content. Software The evolution and diffusion of software in education is mainly a result of factors unrelated to education, a combination of technological changes, the global software market, and even national context features such as the mode of distribution for software products in the country. In some cases, educational practice regarding specific software can be largely affected by the kind of pressure that informed teachers and students may exert on official school practices while they are still in the making. The Greek context significantly favors a tendency among teachers to obtain software products which substitute for the official educational software and software developed by the teachers themselves either individually or collectively. The deviation in the use of software is a result of a number of factors such as: (a) the officially promoted software is considered obsolete; (b) some teachers had developed specific approaches as a result of their working together in informal groups or as a result of training which they had received; (c) teachers felt that the system could accommodate their interests and the resulting deviations due to the novelty of the situation, which was not tightly controlled by the Ministry of Education as other school activities normally are.

Table 2. Software Use in Greek Lower Secondary Schools as Reported by Computer Education Teachers, 1992 Software Type Word-processing programs BASIC Tools and utilities programs Data bases programs spreadsheets LOGO Paint and drawing programs Recreational games

Percent of Schools 83 82 68 71 57 40 37 35 (N=136)

Source: Greece's lEA Computers in Education study, 1992.

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Table 2 shows which software types get the most use in Greek lower secondary schools. For many of these types (for example, painting and drawing programs, spreadsheets, recreational games), use would not be indicated by official curriculum guidelines. Such deviations in the use of software products are probably rather important in the sense that they might promote the effective use of computers in education.

Training Based upon the first stage of the Greek lEA Computers in Education study. Table 3 expresses the degree to which the informatics teachers in Greece reported having received some kind of training on computer-related topics. Notice that the acquired skills suggested by the table are more closely related to traditional computer technology than to the knowledge informatics teachers might require to implement and promote the use of computers among the students in their classes (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, et al., 1992; Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991). For example, programming skills in BASIC and COBOL, especially those gained to a large extent via paper and pencil exercises, have littie relationship to practical, hands-on experience with computers. To some extent, the character of the informatics curriculum will reflect teachers' capabilities. And the developed capabilities of the teachers will result from a combination of factors such as interests, interaction within professional associations, chance, and the potential for income-supplementing activities outside the education system as well as from opportunities for training. Some mathematics teachers, and to a lesser extent physics teachers, developed the capacity to use computers and spreadsheet and database application packages and to program in COBOL or BASIC. In the Patras area for example, a number of mathematics teachers from the Hellenic Mathematics Association formed a Logo special interest group to work actively with each other, children, and with the research unit at the University of Patras (Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, 1988, p. 18). Interestingly enough, the training topics listed in Table 3 are reinforced by the teaching method orientation of the education system at large. For all school subjects, the preparatory methods courses for teachers emphasize content and abstract knowledge. Reflecting the kinds of knowledge or ways of knowing that are considered important and legitimate, they lack a systematic and pragmatic orientation.

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Table 3. Training Received by Computer Education Teachers in the Lower Secondary Schools of Greece Type of Training Unit Programming languages (e.g. BASIC, Assembler, PASCAL, FORTRAN) Basic concepts, computers and computer systems Hardware (e.g. computer architecture, CPU, data flow control) Word-processing Educational/recreational programs Various pedagogical/instructional aspects Telecommunications (e.g. electronic mail)/networks Laboratory Instrumentation

Percent Teachers

95 88 77 75 27 10 3 2

Source: Greece's lEA Computers in Education study, 1992.

The teachers had acquired a body of skills which has been traditionally related to computer technology rather than the knowledge and skills necessary to introduce computers in the schools to be used by students. Programming language skills, and especially those of BASIC and COBOL, acquired by the teachers to a large extent on the basis of pen and paper exercises, have little relationship with the practical use of the technology for hands-on experiences. It is rather an extension of the algorithmic concepts in mathematics. The same is true for the use of very few applications packages. In this sense, the character of computer education or the Informatics curriculum reflects to some extent teachers, capabilities. And teachers, capabilities reflect contextual factors identified above. The major source of training support for informatics teachers in Greece has been the Ministry of Education. More than 80% of Greek teachers and principals cited the Ministry as their primary source for training. This attests to the high level of centralization in the system. Most of the other countries in the lEA Computers in Education study did not refer as frequently to a central state agency as their major provider of training (Pelgrum & Plomp, 1991, p. 64). As the Ministry of Education organized teacher training for secondary informatics teachers in 1988, it pursued the same goal of 'storing a package' of general and abstract knowledge. Table 4 shows that 70 of the 86 training hours involved are devoted to programming (although, again, paper and pencil activities predominate the programming activity). The most likely topics in the program to include hands-on computer activity are the two applications to which the least time has been devoted. Note, however, that the

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business applications unit forms part of the overall training but a unit on educational applications does not. Interestingly enough, the topics in which these teachers have received their training reinforces the pattern of their initial self-training as well as the contextual elements of curriculum orientation and teaching methods orientation of the educational system at large. Emphasis on content, abstract knowledge, and lack of a systematic pragmatic orientation are the fundamental characteristics of the content and methods of teaching in schools. These practices are replicated in all school subjects and reflect what is considered to be important and legitimate knowledge and ways of knowing, as presented in this paper.

Table 4. Training Program Implemented in 1988 for Informatics Teachers in Secondary School Training Topic In Informatics

Time Distribution

Programming PASCAL/BASIC or COBOL Special issues (operating systems etc.) Application packages (databases, spreadsheets, word-processing, etc.) Applications in business Discussion (conclusion of seminar)

22 periods ^ 40 periods 8 periods 8 periods 6 periods 2 periods

Total

86 periods

Note: ^ = one period equals 45 minutes Source: Working Group (1988).

Educational Practice According to interviews with practicing teachers, computer literacy courses generally follow the educational practices in other subject matters such as science or math. They include three activities: teaching the content of theory, working exercises (for example, in problem solving) to help students understand the content and theory, and evaluating students. The same pattern is followed in laboratory activities for computer courses. The teacher begins by presenting concepts on the blackboard. At this point, a demonstration on the computer is required by the unified curriculum and indicated in the textbook. But, according to our interview data, it is rarely provided. Next, the students participate in paper and pencil exercises or in computer activities under teacher supervision if they are working in laboratory settings. Student evaluation is based upon oral replication of the theory and the concepts.

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participation in paper and pencil or laboratory exercises, and written examinations^. Some exceptions exist to this pattern, however. In a few computer-related subjects, no state textbooks are yet available. Also, it is true that some computer-related subjects are taught primarily in the laboratory, but, at the same time, enriched, individualized teaching activities have never been suggested. Nevertheless, the topics currently taught in informatics in Greece include a variety of encyclopedic items and programming. Students are typically taught in groups of 15 for two hours per week and alternate locations between the classroom and the laboratory for one hour in each. As we have seen, this focus in informatics classrooms is reinforced by the character of teachers' initial and inservice training discussed above. Moreover, reinforcement of this type of content can be expected to continue. In 1993, a new Department of Informatics was established at the University of Athens composed of faculty members from the physics department. Concurrently, a new Teachers' Yearbook for computer-related courses of study was established to include graduates in engineering or computer science (that is, graduates who have not been required to receive training in the field of education). Issues Related to the Paradigm of Computer Use The integration of discipline-educated scientists and professionals into elementary and secondary education as subject teachers is a pattern that has been witnessed over and over throughout the history of the Greek education system. The pattern perpetuates a solitary emphasis on knowledge that is traditionally defined and conveyed. A number of factors intensify the hold of this pattern. Opportunities for scientific experts to be meaningfully employed have been relatively limited. Therefore, they fill the ranks of applicant teachers, exacerbating the domination of the traditional university disciplines versus what happens in primary and secondary schools. In the past, this domination was limited to the ranks of the School of Philosophy at the University of Athens, but it has recently extended to other departments and ^

The teachers interviewed by the research group of the COMPED study are practicing in the Patras region. Due to the overall uniformity of the educational system, there is little doubt that the practices they describe for their own classrooms are practically identical across the country.

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Other universities.7 Indeed, the forces which shape the content of university studies control and determine what stands for "education" and "teaching" in the lower level schools. By long tradition, disciplinary university professors have served on the committees which develop educational policies regarding curricula, teacher hiring, and accreditation criteria. Thus a completely closed system is established in which the definitions of school knowledge, teachers, knowledge, and teachers, qualifications are derived and controlled by the same source, and secondary education is reduced to simplifications of the lower-order course content offered in universities. It is difficult in these circumstances to expect that computer education in Greek schools will in the near future develop to cover something more than the content of introductory programming and application packages. In the early and mid-1980s, when the first phases of computer education implementation began, the Ministry tried to mobilize the available resources, meaning experienced teachers who had developed an interest in using the computers. In some cases, these teachers had received university-based pedagogic training geared to the educational use of computers and had participated in workgroups fostering such activities. Quite often though, they had received a routine programming course. The teachers in the former case, especially where they operated as a group within a school or a district, have presented real possibilities for the innovative use of computers in education. New developments such as the "Yearbook of Teachers in Informatics"^ and the national curriculum under way have not only suppressed these possibilities but they have also established the conditions for the usual course of events in educational policy making. The educational system's functioning, in its effort to respond to the international imperatives of both new technologies as well as new markets, revealed a dual problem. It consisted of the inability to finance the purchase of computers due to the need for heavy military expenditure versus other expenditure—as compared with other European counties—as well as the inability to design (in a relatively short time) the "curriculum" for the introduction of computers in schools. Furthermore, the educational system's functioning could not accommodate fast and quantitatively efficient teacher training in the use of computers. These difficulties did in fact create enough space for teachers in the 1980s to take initiative and promote their own work and alternative views on the educational uses of computers into everyday practice. Needless to say, technical as well as substantive knowledge was not extensive. But teachers were increasingly becoming aware and alert to the Even though the University of Patras and the University of Crete were the first to establish computer departments in the beginning of the 1980s, neither had the same chance as the University of Athens did to promote teacher hiring policies when it established a computer science department several years later. The "Yearbook of Teachers in Informatics" is in fact a priority list from which teachers of the specific subject are appointed by the Ministry of Education.

GREEK SCHOOLS & COMP. EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS 243

fact that there was a possibility for approaching the use of computers in schools based on educational criteria vis-a-vis the prevailing view of the "engineers" and scientists promoting routine programming activities. They were also able, in some cases, to reach out and work together with groups or individuals who had the expertise to pursue such a course of work. This "awareness" made the group of teachers in the Patras area voice their concerns: They proposed Logo to become an option to be allowed as a possible programming language alternative in the 1988 Ministry-sponsored training Seminars. The relaxation in the strict procedural approval of the Working Group's technocentric content allowed for the viability of such an alternative proposal. The relaxation of procedures was made possible by the fact that the Pedagogic Institute had no expertise and thus no legitimate function to perform in promoting Informatics education. It was exactly for this reason-lack of knowledge, power, and control-that the Pedagogic Institute could neither enforce preconceived teacher training topics, nor refuse the acceptance of alternatives which the teachers suggested to the Ministry of Education.^ Current Plans and Concerns The Project to Extend Informatics Needs and objectives. In 1992, the project of computer implementation in education focussed on formulating plans to make a massive purchase of hardware for lower secondary schools, to replace the existing equipment in more secondary schools, to expand the curriculum, and to continue efforts to secure the necessary teaching force. The curriculum has been drafted (Working Group, 1992). And, if the 6,600 personal computers envisaged for purchase can be acquired, approximately 800 schools will be provided with hardware. They would be drawn from the remaining 1300 schools in the country that did not receive European Union funding for hardware. Thus, informatics increasingly enters the mainstream curriculum. At the same time, it emulates mathematics or physics education insofar as it is taught through the traditional instructional method of lecture end exercises by discipline graduates of the corresponding field of study.

This information is based on the lEA research group's interviews with members of the Working Group as well as information provided by teachers present in the meeting. This became very clear by the fact that, as a result of the meeting, the proposed content of the training seminars was modified to include Logo as an alternative programming language and the discussion on the educational use of computers.

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GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, STELIOS GEORGAKAKOS, & ANTONIS ZAVOUDAKIS

According to the most recent report from the Working Group (1992), the Ministry promotes the use of computers in everyday school activities with verbatim references to the rationale presented by KontogiannopoulouPolydorides (1991) that distinguishes the "technical" model (computer literacy and programming language) from the "pragmatic" model (computer use in school subjects) and the "integrated" model. The report argues in favor of the integrated model, indicating that both computer literacy and the use of computers to support the learning of other subject matters are desirable educational objectives. In other words, the intention has now been formally stated to abandon some of the outdated "technical" approach, and new prospects now exist for making the informatics curriculum more pragmatic. The National Strategic Committee for Informatics and New Technologies in Education, a committee formed especially for the extension project, is charged with the responsibility to control it, to solve problems, and to assess its progress. Implementation is defined to consist of several features. New curricula will be designed for teaching informatics in primary and secondary education by the pragmatic approach that uses computers in everyday school practices across subjects. Of the informatics teachers now teaching in the schools, 150 will be retrained (and given follow-up training) in topics such as Windows, Novell, LPI COBOL, LPI Pascal, and so on, to meet the demands created by the new courses. In order to diffuse the new knowledge countrywide, these teachers will be expected to teach the other teachers in their own regional areas. To train prospective teachers in the new knowledge, specific introductory seminars will be designed. In addition, the schools must be efficiently supplied with up-to-date software products according to their specific educational objectives. This includes upgrading the most widely used application packages such as Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and the programming languages LPI BASIC and LPI Pascal as well as providing operating systems other than MS-DOS such as MS Windows for lower secondary schools, UNIX for upper secondary schools, and NOVELL for networks. Arrangements to provide effective technical support and maintenance must be made with the companies that supply the schools with hardware and other computer equipment (Ministry of Education, 1992). A first critical view. At the onset, the extension project promised success. As an educational policy, it appeared to be effectively stated and founded on a consistent, well-organized approach. It also identified short, medium, and long-term goals along with the key factors that would be considered to signify success at each successive stage. Yet from the actions that have taken place thus far, it seems that an important goal of the project—abandoning some of the technical approach in favor of the pragmatic-is not being accomplished. During the first stage of implementation (prior to the 1993-94 school year), some goals were met. A large number of updated and powerful hardware systems were installed; the schools were supplied with new application software and programming languages; and the teachers attended training

GREEK SCHOOLS & COMP. EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS 245

seminars. However, the types of software selected for the teachers' training programs focussed mainly on computer applications and programming (Ministry of Education 1993a) and the overwhelming attention given to theoretical and technical knowledge in the training seminars allowed teachers little chance to engage in any substantial practical work or to explore any approaches for using computers across subjects (Ministry of Education, 1993b; National Technical University of Athens, 1993). Thus, the software and the training provided so far do not at all challenge the established "technical" approach as far as the project is concerned, i.e. by using computers across the subject matters taught in schools. Therefore, we are confronted with many questions as to the meaning of the second part of the project's implementation goals that emphasizes the use of computers across subjects in the curriculum. In its initial design, a certain amount of decentralization was considered important to the project's success. For example, the Ministry referred to teachers' active participation and their flexibility to choose their own educational materials and activities as crucial factors (Ministry of Education, 1992). The content of the training seminars thus far have not contributed in this direction. Moreover, a process is now in progress to compile an itemized, analytical, and compulsory curriculum that will be accompanied by new textbooks and the same software for every school. As in the past, the centralized approach has been reinforced rather than loosened in the process of a much advertised decentralization. A nationwide, common curriculum is assured, but the barriers to free choice among the teachers do exist, in spite of assurances for the opposite, and these may inhibit their active participation in the project's implementation. At least until the 1994-95 school year is completed, we must still consider this extension project to be operating in transitive phase, which of course makes it subject to the temporary kinds of problems that can arise during a transition. Therefore, it is somewhat premature to attempt a broad assessment of its success. Nevertheless, it will be useful to continue analyzing the effects of the project in this manner at the macro-level as well as at the micro-level where implementation becomes part of the educational practice at individuals schools. Epilogue Papert (1987) has offered the following insight: "The context for human development is always a culture, never an isolated technology. In the presence of computers, culture might change and with them people's ways of learning and thinking. But if you want to understand the change, you have to center your attention to the culture not the computer" (p. 23). Similarly aware

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GEORGIA K.-POLYDORIDES, STELIOS GEORGAKAKOS, & ANTONIS ZAVOUDAKIS

of the intricacies involved in introducing a new (and foreign) technology, Murray-Lasso (1990) listed at least 12 "constraints" that can be imposed by culture. Of special note are the good number of differences he mentioned between the countries that produce the new technologies on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other. Differences in the content of school subjects, in educational ideology, and in teaching styles and approaches (whether dogmatic, authoritarian, content-transmitting, or whatever) are all context-bound. That is, they derive from the society thus become once more a decisive factor in viewing education or technology, and in viewing both, even more so.

References Dimaras, A. (1978). "The Movement for Reform: A Historical Perspective." Comparative Education Review. Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 11-20. Doukides, G., et al. (1992). Working Group of the Ministry of Education, Proposal of the Working Group for the Informatics Curriculum of Primary and Lower Secondary Education, Athens, Sept. (in Greek). European Union. (1983). Journal OjficieU No 256, September 24. Government Gazette 63/1987, vol. A. (in Greek). Ktenas, S. (1991). "The Greek Informatics Market at the last position in European Union." Financial Forum (in Greek). Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G., & Kynigos, Ch. (1993). An Educational Perspective of the Socio-Cultural Pre-requisites for Logo-like Education in Greece. Proceedings: 4th European Logo Conference, August, Athens. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G., Mylonas, Th., Solomon, J., & Vergidis, D. (1994). "Greece: System of Education." In T.N. Postlethwaite International Encyclopedia of Education, Oxford: Pergamon, pp 2515-2523. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G., et al. (1992). National Report of Greece on stage 1 of COMPED, Greek National Center of lEA, Patras (in Greek). Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G. (1991). "The Social and Educational Issues in the Use of New Technologies" (reprint). Contemporary Issues, (in Greek). Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides, G., et al. (1988). Interdisciplinary teachers training for the introduction of computers in secondary education (in Greek). Makrakis, V. (1988). Computers in education, Studies in International and Comparative Education, Stockholm Institute of International Education. McLean, M. (1990). Britain and a single market Europe: Prospects for a Common School Curriculum. The Bedford Way Series, Institute of Education, University of London. London: Kogan Page Ch. 5. Ministry of Education - Bureau of Informatics. (1992). Program for the extension of the Introduction of the Informatics in primary and secondary. Ministry of Education. (1993a). Technical specifications for the equipment (hardware and software) of the schools. Ministry of Education. (1993b). Description of the first teachers training program. Mouzelis, N. (1978). Modern Greece: Facets of Underdevelopment. London: Mac Millan. Murray-Lasso. (1990). "Cultural and social constraints on portability." Journal of research on computing in education, vol. 23, No 2. National Technical, University of Athens. (1993). The context of the second teachers training seminar.

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GREEK SCHOOLS & COMP. EDUCATION: SOCIO-CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS 247

Papert, S. (1987). "Computer Criticism Versus Technocentric Thinking." Educational Researcher, 16(1), pp. 22-30. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (1991). The Use of Computers in Education Worldwide. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Psacharopoulos, G. (1988). "Efficiency and Equity in Greek Higher Education." Minerva, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, pp. 119-137. Working Group for the Introduction of Informatics in Primary and Secondary Education. (1988). Report to the Ministry of Education, Athens (in Greek).

The authors are affiliated with the department of Education, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.

ASHOK K. SHARMA AND SATVIR SINGH

COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION: THE INDIAN CONTEXT

The national system of education in India employs a curricular framework with a common core and other flexible components. It intends to provide access and quality of education to all. The administrative and financial controls of the system rest jointly with the union government and the state-level governments. In 1984, a program of computer literacy was started on an experimental basis in government schools. The first computer-related policy, emphasizing computer literacy, was established as a part of the National Policy on Education in 1986 and modified in 1992. Realizing all of India's intended policy goals regarding the use of computers in education will require facing several major obstacles. This paper makes suggestions for overcoming some of them. India is the second most populous country of the world with a population of about 844 million according to the 1991 Census (Registrar General of India, 1991). Seven union territories and 25 states comprise the Indian Union, in which exists a wide sociolinguistic, religious, and cultural diversity. About 80% of the country's population live in villages where basic amenities like electricity and reliable means of communication are still in the process of growth and development. Although Hindi has been accorded the status of the official language and English an associated language, 18 Indian languages are recognized by the constitution.

The Educational System in India From the British colonial period, India inherited a western education system. After the country gained independence in 1947, the most important aspect of educational development was the continuous and sustained effort to evolve a national system of education~that is, a system which could provide an indigenous identity so as to reflect the Indian ethos and concerns of the society. Education was a state matter prior to 1976. Then, by constitutional amendment, education was added to the Concurrent List and became the joint responsibility of both the union and the state governments. 249 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 249-263. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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ASHOK K. SHARMA AND SATVIR SINGH

Policies for Evolving a National System The process of reviewing the education system has been periodically undertaken to improve its efficiency and quality and to enable it to meet the challenges of the future. One such review led to the formulation of the National Policy on Education-1986, which was further reviewed by the government of India and modified in 1992 (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1986, 1992a). The policy, inter alia, reiterates the imperatives to evolve the national system of education, comprehensive of all educational processes, fully integrated with the sociocultural milieu, and intended to develop the potentials of individuals. According to the policy, the concept of a national system of education in India implies that all pupils up to a given level, irrespective of caste, creed, location, or sex, have access to education of a comparable quality. Other salient features of the policy can be summarized as follows: • • • • •

•

•

The provision of educational opportunity to all, not only in terms of access to educational facilities, but also in the conditions for success. A national curricular framework that contains a common core along with other components that are flexible. The introduction of norms of minimum levels of learning for each stage of education. Linkages with the world of work and the development of entrepreneurship. Educational programs for promoting national identity and unity and fostering among pupils an understanding of the diverse cultural and socioeconomic systems of the people living in the different parts of the country. Provisions for the lateral and vertical mobility of learners for the purposes of furthering their education and training through different modes of learning. A technical support system for the continuous improvement of the quality of education.

The Structure and Size of the System The National Policy on Education-1986 also specified a common 10+2+3 structure of education. Figure 1 displays the relationships of its components, 10 years of general education, 2 years of diversified education (at the senior secondary level), and 3 years of education leading to the bachelor's degree. The 10-year period of general education consists of 5 years in primary school, 3 years in upper primary, and 2 years in secondary school. The first 8 of these

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251

10 years, elementary education, are free and compulsory by constitutional provision.

Year

I

I

H

I

III

I

tV

I

V

I

VI

I

VII

I

VIII

I

IX

I

X

I

XI

I

Xll

XHI

I

I

XIV

I

XV

I

XVI

I

XVII

XVIIl

I

I

XIX

1

I

I

General Education PG. Univ. Upper Primary

Secondary

Undergraduate College

Senior Secondary

PrePrimary

|M.Pht.|

Vocational Stream

Primary teacherl training

Open School Polytechnics

Non-Formal Centers

Non-Formal Centers

Vocational Schools & ITI's

Compulsory Education

6

rn—\

7

'J

H

i

\

10

\

11

\

12

\

13

\

14

\

15

\

16

\

17

\

18

I

19

\

20

\

21

\

\

\

23

\

24

r

25

Figure 1. The Educational Structure in India.

All degrees which lead to a professional qualification in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology, and so on are known as the professional degrees. The duration of these courses (leading to the B.E./B.Tech. and M.B.B.S. degrees) varies from 4 to 5 years after the higher secondary stage. Technical schools ("vocational" in the figure) and Industrial Training Institutes ("ITIs") train semi-skilled and skilled workers including first line supervisors. Students who complete elementary education are generally admitted in these courses. At the higher level, there are Polytechnics for training technicians. Polytechnic programs typically require a duration of 3 years following the completion of general education. The statistics in Table 1 indicate the size of India's school system by displaying the total numbers of teachers, pupils, and teaching institutions at each grade level for the 1990-91 school year. The divisions among types are not always clearcut, however, because an upper stage school may have one or more lower stages attached to it. Enrollment ratios in India are high only for children under 10. The percentages of enrolled students compared to the total number of eligible students in the population are available from the "Fifth All-India Educational Survey" which was conducted by the National Council

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ASHOK K. SHARMA AND SATVIR SINGH

of Educational Research and Training (NCERT, 1992). At the time of the survey, 76% of the child population were enrolled in school at the lower primary level, and 51% of the eligible students were enrolled at the upper primary age-level. Enrolled at the secondary +2 stage were 33% of the eligible population; and at the higher secondary level, 14%.

Table 1. Number of Institutions, Teachers, and Enrollment in 1990-91

Institutional Type Primary schools Upper primary schools Secondary schools Higher secondary schools

Institutions 558,392 146,636 59,468 19,151

Teachers

Pupils

1,636,898 1,059,295 806,326 466,176

70,374,065 39,805,164 25,176,717 15,299,277 (or more)

Note: The table is not sorted by grade level. If pupils attend grade levels that are attached to higher stage schools, they are counted as part of the enrollment in the higher stage. Source: Ministry of Human Resources Development (1992 c), Selected educational statistics 1990-91, Department of Education, New Delhi, India.

Financing A group of central schools (Kendriya Vidyalayas) and residential schools for talented rural children (Navodaya Vidyalayas) is directly run and wholly supported by the central government. But governmental aid to the rest of the schools in India can vary. Some types of schools are totally aided by government. (Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes are among this group.) Others are either partially aided or completely unaided. Many nongovernmental schools receive large fees from their students whose parents are drawn from the higher income groups. Table 2 demonstrates that while education's allotment as a percentage of the total national budget remained almost constant over the last several years, the per capita or per student governmental costs for schooling have risen steadily.

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Table 2. Per Capita Expenditure on Education and Percentage of Total National Budget, 19871992

Year

Per Capita Budgeted Expenditure in U.S. Dollars

1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92

4.20 4.90 5.81 6.48 7^05

Percentage of Education Expenditure to Total National Budget (Revenue) 11.3 11.1 11.9 11.6 1L2

Source: Ministry of Human Resource Development (1993). Analyses of budgeted expenditure on education for various years. Department of Education, New Delhi, India.

Levels of Decision-Making When the constitutional amendment of 1976 established joint responsibilities between the union and the state governments in respect of this vital area of national life, the role of the states remained essentially unchanged. It was the union government that accepted new and large responsibilities. Its basic duties for the educational system are to reinforce the national integrative character of education in India, to maintain its quality and standards, and to study and monitor the educational requirements of the country as a whole. The Central Advisory Board of Education is the organization that reviews educational development at the national level, determines the changes required to improve the system, and monitors their implementation. Inputs to this process are provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the various professional bodies, such as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, and the University Grants Commission. At the state level, a Department of Education and a Directorate of Education look after budgeting, personnel management, planning, and supervision. At the district and block levels, a District Education Officer and a Block Education Officer, respectively, oversee the more local budgeting and planning activities as well as the activities to establish and implement different educational programs. Degree of centralization. Recently the constitution of India was amended to introduce local self-government (Panchayati Raj). This amendment (the 73rd) has implications for decentralizing the management of education in the entire country. With the establishment of village education committees and district councils, the present system of state-level centralization will gradually

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ASHOK K. SHARMA AND SATVIR SINGH

be transformed into the new modality. This approach will ultimately make the planning of education, including the design of curricula, more specific to the needs of the community. Curriculum. National curricular policies are spelt out for the schools by designing a national curriculum framework which becomes the basis of development for syllabus guidelines, textbooks, and related materials. NCERT prepares the model curricula for adoption and adaptation by the states. Then the state-level mechanisms are responsible to develop statespecific curriculum materials in their respective languages, keeping in view the parameters of the national curriculum framework. These materials are developed through the association of practicing school teachers with experts in the subjects. In limited situations, some materials can be tested in the field before they are implemented. Examinations. The scheme of assessment recommended to the schools is one of continuous and comprehensive evaluation. External examinations are conducted at the end of grades 10 and 12 by the concerned board of education. There are 26 State Boards of Secondary Education as well as a Council of Indian School Certificate Examination and a Central Board of Secondary Education.^ The last two perform the same major functions as do the state boards, only with national and international jurisdiction. The examinations at the higher education level are conducted by the concerned universities or institutions of higher learning. A trend has been developing for professional institutions to conduct their own entrance examinations for admission.

Computer-Related Developments and Policies The National Policy on Education-1986 marked the first time that computer-related policies were formally included in nationwide policy documents. However, several initiatives concerning computers in education were already taken prior to 1986. Emergence of Computer Education The use of computers in education in India can be viewed to begin from 1979 onwards when a program of use for microprocessors was included at the graduate and undergraduate levels in the engineering colleges. Subsequently, computer education programs found a place under vocational courses in the curricula of Polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes. In July 1984, a national project titled "Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools (CLASS)" It is optional to schools to be affiliated to a central or state board.

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was launched in 250 schools at the higher secondary stage. The CLASS project expanded each year. Also in 1984, the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination took the initiative to introduce computer science as an elective subject at the higher level of general secondary education. The following year, the government of India formed a committee to develop model curricula for elective as well as vocational computer courses. During this period, some privately managed schools introduced programs similar to CLASS, and some State Boards of Secondary Education quickly adopted the newly-developed model curriculum approaches for use in their schools. National Policy on Education-1986 By 1986, computers had become a topic of emphasis for the national educational system. The National Policy on Education-1986 consciously reflected the need of computer education as an integrated component of school education, stating that "As computers have become important and ubiquitous tools, a minimal exposure to computers and training in their use will form part of professional education." To accomplish that, the policy documents proclaimed that computer literacy programs would be organized on a wide scale in the school stages preceding professional education. Mathematics would be redesigned to use "modern technological devices," and schools would be "equipped with up-to-date learning resources and computer facilities." To assist the generation of resources for these purposes, the document also promoted the encouragement of schools to use "their capacities to provide services to the community and to the industry." The issue of equity among economically disparate regions and groups was addressed with this statement: In order to avoid structural dualism, modern educational technology must reach out to the most distant areas and the most deprived sections of beneficiaries simultaneously with the areas of comparative affluence and ready availability. (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1986). Modification of the national policy was completed in 1992 following a review of India's experiences with implementing the 1986 objectives. At this time, the intention to eventually extend computer learning to all secondary schools was stated explicitly: Efforts will be made to provide computer literacy to as many secondary level of institutions as possible so that the children are equipped with necessary computer skills to be effective in the emerging technological world. (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1992a).

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Computer-Related Curriculum Three Course Types As the result of this history, three types of computer-related programs or courses developed in India, the CLASS (literacy) course, a computer science course under the academic stream, and a computer science course under the vocational stream. Based upon different approaches, they are geared as well toward different terms of stimulation, compensation, and restriction. ^'Computer Literacy and Studies in School (CLASS)." The CLASS project was initiated following the early 1980s, when the manpower division of India's Department of Electronics projected the need for middle-order people trained in the use of computers to cope with the growing demand of the technological society. With this need in mind, 1983-84 was devoted to the planning of the CLASS literacy project whose aim is to familiarize school children with some capabilities of the microcomputer technology through hands-on experience. A report NCERT (1984) wrote about the project emphasized in addition the need for familiarizing students and teachers with the range of computer applications available and their potential as a learning medium. Out of concerns for equity, it was decided that only schools partially or fully financed by the government would be eligible for the CLASS project. Non-governmental schools typically have greater resources available to them from the fees that they charge. Therefore, in order that the less privileged would not be deprived the benefits of good education, including computer education, only government schools were selected for the implementation of the project. The CLASS project initially started in 250 higher secondary schools in July of 1984. More schools were included each year thereafter, and now the CLASS project has expanded to about 2500 schools, or approximately 13% (see Table 1) of the schools at that level. The project is fully financed by the government of India, and acute financial shortages prevent extending it any further. Schools are selected for the project by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in consultation with the state governments. Initially, schools under the CLASS project were equipped with two BBC (8-bit) systems. In 1987-88, this number was enhanced to five BBC systems. The procurement, distribution, and maintenance of hardware and service support for the project are provided by the Computer Maintenance Corporation Ltd., a government of India undertaking. NCERT develops the curriculum and instructional material and procures and selects software for CLASS at the national level, and then passes them on to the Computer Maintenance Corporation Ltd. for distribution.

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CLASS project activities in the schools are monitored, supervised, and guided by the nearest Resource Centre. Located in technical or higher education institutions that possess trained personnel, these are the organizations in the country's educational system responsible for academic inputs to the schools. For the schools participating in CLASS, both preliminary and advanced levels of teacher training were organized, and the three teachers in each school who were designated to implement the project received their training from the Resource Centres. Assistance with system maintenance and with finding solutions to the day-to-day problems teachers might encounter was also set up to be provided by the Resource Centres. Computer science course under the academic stream. "How do we prepare the school children of today for the world of tomorrow?" is a challenge being faced by all the schools. The world that today's children will live in and work in tomorrow will be very different, and the nature of the distance between those present and future worlds will have more impact on the way people live, find entertainment, earn their livings, and communicate with each other than occurred in any previous age. Today's children will be entering a job market in which computer literacy is not merely expected but demanded. Therefore, the education system for school children should focus not only on the sensible applications of computers in various subjects but also provide opportunities to those children who wish to choose careers in computing. Unfortunately, it is generally only the non-government schools in India, with better funding available from fees or other sources, that are able to meet the heavy expenses involved in arranging equipment, software, maintenance, and teacher training for computer science courses. Although an academicstream computer science course is prescribed by the concerned State Board of Secondary Education, each school that offers it has to generate its own financial resources for the procurement and maintenance of the necessary hardware and software. Hence, the academic stream program in computer science has not usually been introduced in government-aided schools. Teacher training for such courses, as either preservice or inservice sessions, is almost non-existent. Computer science course under the vocational stream. Because it was visualized that the rapid growth of information technology and computer industries would place heavy demands on India's human resources—requiring people who are trained to function at various levels from highly skilled professionals to skilled workers and operators, the computer courses at Industrial Training Institutes and Polytechnics are fully financed by the governments. Financial support from the governments is also provided for schools that run vocational courses at the higher secondary stage. However, the shortage of trained secondary teachers in this area is felt very much by the schools. At the +2 stage, vocational courses have a very meager coverage.

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ASHOK K. SHARMA AND SATVIR SINGH

even in the government-financed schools, although a report prepared by NCERT in 1985 elaborately defined the objectives, scope, and curriculum for vocational computer courses at this stage. In almost all the states, secondary computer science courses under the vocational stream are monitored and supervised by the Directorate of Education. The inputs, like hardware, software, and teachers in the schools, are paid for by the governments. Current trends. Attempts to improve the organization and the technology for these programs are in progress. The curricula for the CLASS and the computer science courses are being reviewed and modified with the advancements in technology in hardware and software engineering. Plans are currently under construction to provide the CLASS project with IBM/PCcompatible systems in place of the 8-bit BBC micros it has been using. When the Program of Action-1992 expressed interest in strengthening "the management system of the CLASS project," it specified that "schools which want to charge a fee to improve and extend facility for CLASS would be allowed" (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1992b). A related and notable change took place when some fee-charging schools entered into contracts with professional organizations to execute the computer literacy programs. Not only that, a few schools fully financed by the government have also adopted this practice on experimental basis. Scope and Content The integration of computer-related topics in existing subjects has been recognized as a desirable goal, and pupils are given some exposure to computer-based learning programs in various subjects like science, mathematics, language, and so on. Table 3 itemizes the topics that are covered in each of the three types of computer-related courses. The emphasis of the CLASS project is on experience; 60% of its total time is devoted to hands-on activities. CLASS activities are organized in 60 periods (two periods per week) for one full academic year. The computer science programs in the academic and vocational streams are each of 2 years' length. The prescribed class time for them is about 168 periods annually (of 35 to 40 minutes' duration), and about 30% of that time is allotted for practical, hands-on experience.

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Table 3. Computer-Related Topics in Key Courses

Topic

CLASS

Academic Stream Computer Science

Computer-based learning

X

History and evolution

X

Vocational Stream Computer Science

General concepts (procedures, programming, & problem analysis) Principles of hardware and software structure

X

X

X

Editing and word processing

X

X

X

Drawing, printing, etc.

X

X

X

Spreadsheet

X

X

X

Problem analysis & programming

X

X

X

Teacher Training Program As mentioned, the Resource Centres provide inservice training to teachers under the CLASS project. Further, the National Council of Teacher Education, recognizing the potential of information technology, studied in 1989 its implications on teacher education and recommended computer education programs for teachers in the country. In the 1-year curriculum of teacher education for those who will teach other (non-computer) subjects at the secondary stage, computer education is included as an option than can be taken under an additional specialization component. Teacher education for the higher secondary stage covers media resources, including computer-aided instruction (CAI), as well as communication technology in its program. Within the 4-year "Integrated Teacher Education Program" for secondary stage teachers, CAI and computer-aided learning (CAL) have been added under the general education component and also in transactional methodologies.^ In the recendy set-up District Institutes of Education and Training, the use of computers in teacher training has already been incorporated.

The 4-year and 1-year programs are equivalent except that students just leaving the higher secondary stage begin the 4-year program and students who have already acquired a first degree (higher secondary stage plus 3 years) take the 1-year program.

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There is a greater realization now that merely integrating interaction with computers as a teaching-learning technology is too narrow a goal for teacher training. Teachers should be exposed to some training unit in computer awareness as well. Many universities and teacher training institutes in the country are taking due cognizance of this fact as they revise their teacher education curricula.

Some Important Issues For several reasons, none of the three computer education programs could be expanded to all the secondary and senior secondary schools in India. The main constraint, as expected, has been the lack of sufficient financial resources. The Program of Action-1992 acknowledged that financial restrictions would apply by stating that "the CLASS Project would be expanded, subject to resources availability" (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 1992b). Still, in a pluralist society with varying socioeconomic statuses, the concern for equity assumes a lot of significance on the part of government. In order to provide equal opportunity to economically weaker sections of the society, the CLASS Project was launched first in governmentfinanced schools where children of this class are generally studying. Because of financial limitations, however, the attempt could not even cover all of the schools in this group. Two other aspects of implementing computers in India's educational system will demand extraordinary efforts. With the speed of technological developments, keeping pace in the quality of computer education is a herculean task. For example, teacher training and replacements or upgrades for hardware and software require not only vast financial resources but enormous amounts of time to cover a country the size of India. In addition, instruction in India's schools is imparted in more than 18 regional languages. For the successful execution of the computer education program, instructional materials have to be made available in all the regional languages, and the teacher training program must be designed and executed accordingly. This will require significant research efforts in addition to financial and other resources. Gaps between Policy and Practice Obviously, policy formulated at the national level cannot be uniformly executed in all the states and union territories of India when they vary as largely as they do economically, religiously, culturally, and linguistically. This has resulted in gaps between policy intentions and their realization.

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Schools in the many villages that lack basic amenities consequently cannot get a regular supply of electricity for running computers. Moreover, where the means of communication are inadequate, maintenance provisions for hardware and software remain unresolvable problems. The educational administrators of different ladders, preoccupied with their normal inspection and supervision activities, find difficulty in executing any innovative educational program. For computer education programs, they also lack a proper orientation. Meanwhile, the faculties of the Resource Centres have shown diminishing interest in the computer education programs, primarily because of their heavy commitments to teaching and research, so their support to the schools in this area has been weak. The greatest problems with the execution of the CLASS project have been identified from a scientific evaluation of the project undertaken by the government of India, Most of them had to do with either teacher training or technological obsolescence. The schools that do have computers are equipped with outdated hardware and software, and the courseware that exists is predominantly in English. This cannot be effective when instruction to the children in the country is given through 18 distinct languages. Equipment for teacher training is inadequate as well. For their hands-on experience, every 3 teachers are required to share a single computer. In many cases, too, the educational authorities have deputed teachers for training without ascertaining their attitudes toward learning the new technology. The result has been teachers with low motivation. Finally, the study highlighted that accountability difficulties followed from the fact that too many different agencies were involved in the implementation of the CLASS project. Some Suggestions for the Future The various issues mentioned above have attracted the attention of planners and administrators. Still, some other gray areas should also be considered. Teacher educators need to be equipped sufficiently for imparting education to student-teachers, and an inservice training curriculum has to be designed and executed throughout the country. The National Council of Teacher Education could study the requirements of the CLASS project and the computer science courses and determine how to suitably modify the teacher training curriculum in light of its findings. Because the hardware specifications laid down in 1985 by the Department of Education have become outdated, there is also the need to revise and redefine them, both for uniformity and for the efficient execution of the curriculum. The new specifications should include recommendations for upgrade, enhancement, and ease of maintenance. More attention will also have to be given to the monumental task of integrating computers in the teaching and learning of all subjects and making the related instructional materials available in the medium of every instructional language.

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Some of the important issues can be resolved through continuous research and development activities. Strategies for the continuous and comprehensive evaluation of student performance need to be developed and perfected through field trials. Ways to integrate low cost multimedia technology with the curriculum need to be determined and adopted. For the teaching of computer science and computer literacy, the concepts and sub-concepts that should be learned by different age groups must be identified, and the methodologies for teaching those subjects altered accordingly. There is also a need to conduct research to develop evaluative criteria for computer-related instructional material. In the area of cognition science, much work must be done to enable the development of functionally effective tutorial systems.

Conclusions From the above discussions, it is evident that the phenomenal growth in computer technology and its potential use in modern society made it imperative to introduce computers in India's system of education. In order to meet the future challenges in the new technologically developed world, the nation has given high priority to computer education and computer literacy. Currently, at the higher education level, it is not only an independent discipline but also integrated with the other subjects. At the higher secondary level, the curriculum in mathematics includes the study of computers. In other parts of secondary education, the process of integration is still continuing. Certain problems such as a very large population, diversities in languages and culture, complexities in management, and a severe shortage of financial resources have been looked upon as major constraints in the country's ability to execute its computer education program effectively. In spite of these obstacles, some concrete steps to improve the curriculum, develop instructional materials, increase accessibility to computers, and so on have already been initiated. However, these efforts and other inputs are not fully in tune with the immediate needs of the program. Besides the need to locate additional resources, concerted and organized efforts must be directed towards research and developmental activities in order to find more indigenous solutions to the problems. References Ministry of Human Resource Development. (1986). National Policy on Education-1986. Government of India, New Delhi. Ministry of Human Resource Development. (1992a). National Policy on Education-1986 (with modifications undertaken in 1992). Government of India, New Delhi. Ministry of Human Resource Development. (1992b). Program of action 1992: National Policy on Education-1986. Department of Education, Government of India, New Delhi.

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Ministry of Human Resource Development. (1992cj. Selected educational statistics 1990-91. Government of India, New Delhi. Ministry of Human Resource Development. (1993). Analysis of budgeted expenditure on education for various years. Department of Education, Government of India, New Delhi. NCERT. (1984). Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools (CLASS). Publication Department, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. NCERT. (1985). The report of the Committee on Computer Elective Courses at the +2 stage. National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. NCERT. (1988). National curriculum for elementary and secondary education: A framework (revised). Publication Department, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. NCERT. (1989). National curriculum for teacher education: A framework (mimeographed). National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. NCERT. (1992). Fifth all-India educational survey (Vols. I & II). Publication Department, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (1991). The use of computers in education worldwide. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Pelgrum, W.J., Janssen Reinen, I.A.M., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Schools, teachers, students and computers: A cross-national perspective. The Hague, the Netherlands: lEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). Registrar General of India. (1991). Census of India 1991: Provisional population totals (Paper 1 of 1991). Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi.

Dr. Sharma is the Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110016, India. Dr. Singh is a Reader in Education in NCERT's Department of Measurement, Evaluation, Survey, and Data Processing.

PETER J. MCKENNA

NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE IRISH SCHOOL SYSTEM: A SUMMARY

The past twenty years have marked a period of rapid expansion and change in the Irish education system, one that included a period of curriculum renewal and change. During that time, the educational use of new information technologies took place primarily as a bottom-up process in which teachers who were enthusiastic about using computers in the primary and second-level schools supported each other. These activities, together with the assistance they were given by the Department of Education and other professional and voluntary bodies in Ireland, form the basis for this report.

It is little wonder that Ireland's Department of Education (1992) emphasized the need for computer literacy in its discussion document known as the Green Paper/ The strategic importance of information technology (IT) in education is due to the need for young people to be selective and critical in their use of the resources that the coming Information Age makes available to them. In a country that relies heavily on the value added by IT industries, it is also imperative that young people become efficient users and managers of the new technologies as a preparation for their working lives. Furthermore, the use of computers as learning tools in the schools can allow pupils to play a more active role in the classroom and to take more responsibility and initiative in their own learning. Using computers can promote investigation, encourage cooperation, facilitate work in independent groups, and stimulate many non-computer related activities. For example, primary school students can examine the ecological effects of manipulating environmental variables through computer simulations. And the newer multimedia equipment that integrates video, sound, CD-ROMs, and satellite TV can offer students an interactive learning environment akin to virtual reality. Moreover in Ireland, computer use has been shown to be critically important for children with disabilities. ^

The Green Paper was circulated by the Minister of Education to engage in a public debate on educational issues. This step was taken as an antecedent to creating the First Education White Paper, which should be issued in the next few months and will undoubtedly influence legislation in regard to education. 265

r. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 265-281. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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The Irish Education System Legal and Organizational Background The Constitution of Ireland guarantees free primary education for all children. Free second-level education is also available for all children. Compulsory education consists of the 9 school years that usually occur between the ages of 6 and 15. At present, little direct legislation governs the school system. However, the government is planning some structural reforms in the immediate future, and it is expected that legislation will be introduced to support the new structures. The Minister for Education, who controls the Department of Education and is accountable to the National Parliament (Dail Eireann), is responsible for education in the state. Policies are developed by the Department of Education through a process of consultation with bodies such as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the National Council for Vocational Awards, school managers, teachers' trade unions and professional associations, parents' associations, specific working groups that are established from time to time, and other interested parties. The Department of Education is also charged with implementing all educational policy. Accordingly, the work of the Department's inspectorate is far-reaching. It includes appraising the competence of teachers, evaluating the performance of the schools, delivering support and advice to teachers and schools, developing curriculum and inservice education for teachers, advising the Minister on matters of policy, and supervising the conduct of the public examinations system. Decisions made by the Department of Education are communicated to the schools in the form of directives and circulars. Expansion and Finance Table 1 shows the numbers of schools, teachers, and students who were in the primary, junior cycle, and senior cycle school levels during the 1990-91 school year. In the 25 years between 1966 and 1991, the number of students in the entire system increased by 43% due to government policy to provide equality of access to educational opportunities. This represented a 7.7% increase in primary enrollments and a 140% increase in second-level schools. The size of third-level schools increased even more, 230%, in the same time period. Ireland has an unusually large proportion of its population occupied with full-time education. The total number of full-time students in 1991 was 955,059 or approximately 27% of the population. In 1990, Irish expenditures on education equalled 5.4% of the Gross Domestic Product, which compares well with other European countries. However, because of the relatively larger

NIT IN THE IRISH SCHOOL SYSTEMS: A SUMMARY

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numbers of students in Ireland, its per capita expenditures on education compare less favorably.

Table 1. Number of Schools, Pupils, Teachers, and the Pupil-to-Teacher Ratios, 1990-91 School Level

Schools

Pupils

Primary

3,342

543,744

20,430

27:1

792

343,045

18,833

20:1

4,134

886,789

39,263

22.6:1

Second-Level Totals

Teachers

Ratio of Pupils to Teachers

Source: Department of Education.

Types of Schools and Curriculum Primary schools. The 6-year cycle of Irish primary education takes place predominantly in parish schools, about 80% of which are co-educational. Some multi-denominational schools exist in small number as well as special schools for children with disabilities. In addition, a very small number of privately owned, fee-paying schools operate outside of the state system at the primary level. Although the system is de jure non-denominational in that any child may legally seek admittance to any primary school, in practice it has become strongly denominational. Yet, it is also true that the number of project schools explicidy identifying themselves as non-denominational has been growing in recent years. Prior to 1975, each primary school was managed by an individual, usually a clergyman. Then in 1975, a system of management by boards was established. Every primary school now has its own Board of Management which includes representatives from the parish as well as from the teachers and parents of the school. (Hence, the name "parish school" remained in common use even after the change.) Each board receives an annual grant and is responsible for the day-to-day running of its school, subject to the regulations laid down by the Department of Education. Teachers are considered to be employed by their respective Boards of Management even though their salaries are paid by the state. The present primary curriculum, based on a child-centered philosophy, was introduced in 1971 and has won widespread acceptance. In general, all primary subjects are taught by the same class teacher, and children have a different teacher each year. The main components of the curriculum are Irish, English, mathematics, social and environmental studies, arts and crafts,

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PETER J. MCKENNA

music, physical education, and religion. Within this curricular framework, teachers have a large measure of freedom to organize their own programs and activities. While sanctioned textbooks are a requirement, any additional materials and approaches can be used if they seem particularly appropriate to the needs of the children. No formal examinations are given during primary schooling; neither are there any terminal examinations. Instead, school-based evaluation is constant, and parents are kept informed of their children's progress through end-of-term reports. Second-level schools. Figure 1 displays the relationships among all of the different school types in the Irish system. Following primary education is the 3-year junior cycle of second-level education. The junior cycle curriculum is subject-delineated and taught by subject-specialist teachers with classes usually timetabled in 40-minute blocks. The introduction of the Junior Certificate program in 1989 constituted a major development by replacing two general programs, the Intermediate Certificate and the Day Vocational Certificate, with a single unified program.^ All students now take the Junior Certificate at the completion of their 3 years in junior cycle. All second-level senior cycle students up until quite recently followed a single 2-year program called the Leaving Certificate. But since the middle of the 1970s, various new programs have been introduced to cater to the wider diversity of pupils in the rapidly growing system. According to the enrollment figures from 1991-92, about 80% of the senior cycle students follow the Leaving Certificate program. Certified nationally, it prepares students for entry into society or for further education. About 5% take the Leaving Certificate Vocational Program which was introduced in 1989 as a 2-year program with a strong European dimension (including a European language) and a technological orientation. The Senior Certificate is a 2-year program that also includes computer applications. However, less than 1% of senior cycle students are in this program. In 1992, it was still being operated as a pilot project. The Transition Year, shown in the figure as a link between the junior cycle and these 3 senior cycle programs, began to appear after 1991. At that time, all second-level schools were granted the opportunity to pursue a 6-year cycle if they chose, allowing for a 3-year senior cycle. The Transition Year emphasizes non-academic work with about 40% of the time devoted to academic work. While it is not compulsory for schools to offer a Transition In fact, four separate kinds of schools operate at the junior cycle level, but the historical differences among them have been eroding to the point that they are now very similar. Of the students at this age, 63% attend the regular secondary schools while 25 % attend vocational schools and the remaining 12 % attend either comprehensive or community schools. All four kinds of schools presently provide the same set of courses, approved by the Department of Education, and they all enter their students for the same national examinations.

NIT IN THE IRISH SCHOOL SYSTEMS: A SUMMARY

269

Year, it is generally expected that one will be offered by almost all schools in the near future.

Employment Market

Third Level Education A

k

,

Leaving Certificate Leaving Certificate Vocational Program Senior Certificate k

>

ik

VPT-2 (PLC) A

k

Transition Year

VPT-1

k

^

* Other Training Programs

A

, Age 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

>k

Second Level - Junior Cycle

Primary Level

Infant Education - Primary School

Note: * = Other Training Programs: Youthreach, Travellers' Training Workshops, CERT, Apprenticeships. Figure 1. Education Levels, Curricula and Programs.

The remaining 14% of the senior cycle students in 1991-92 were enrolled either in the Vocational Preparation and Training Program (VPT-1) or in one of the "Other Training" options provided by the Department of Education, typically in cooperation with other government agencies. Most (about 4 out of 5) of these students choose the VPT program. VPT-1 and VPT-2 were introduced in 1984 and 1986, respectively. They are 1-year, whole-time courses designed as a preparation for work. VPT-1 is for students who are planning to leave school after the Junior Certificate, at the age of 15 or 16. VPT-1 is to assist in the retention of students who would otherwise drop out. Students who finish it may go straight to work or on to the VPT-2 program, which has evolved into a Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) program. In 1990-91, VPT-1 provided training for over 20,000 pupils in nearly 400 schools or 50% of all second-level schools. Each of the "Other Training Programs" (listed at the bottom of Figure 1) has a specialized focus:

270

• • • •

PETER J. MCKENNA

Youthreach provides 2 years of general education and training for those who expect to leave school with no formal qualifications; the Traveller's Training Workshops cater to the education and training needs of the travelling community; CERT is the training agency for the hotel and tourism industry (--it also monitors a VPT-2 program in Hotel, Catering, and Tourism Skills); and apprenticeship training is provided in VEC schools^ by the Irish Training and Employment Agency in cooperation with the Department of Education.

The Development of IT in Irish Schools Most of the innovations that have characterized the adoption of IT in Irish schools have come from initiatives by teachers and their support groups. The bottom feature is a result of the lack of policy direction from the top. The evidence is excellent to practice in a number of individual schools which it would be invidious to single out. However, Ireland's Department of Education became involved in educational computing at an early stage. It first began organizing inservice courses for second-level teachers in 1971 when groups of teachers who were interested in the use of computers in education attended a series of 1-week courses during the summer holiday school period. The Department of Education provided the premises for the courses and paid lecturers' fees. (In 1984, the inservice courses were extended to primary teachers.) Many of the teachers who participated in these early courses went on to play leading roles in the implementation of IT into the schools. Numerous initiatives were taken to promote IT throughout the 1980s and 1990s. But despite the efforts made by individual teachers, individual schools, the Department of Education, teachers' organizations, third-level colleges, and Teachers' Centres, the vast majority of Irish teachers has not been exposed to IT in their preservice education. With almost 40,000 teachers in the educational system (see Table 1), much more inservice and preservice support needs to be provided. The next section describes what have been the key sources for support and training to date. Support and Training for Teachers The Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI) was formed in 1973 by a group of teachers who were interested in educational computing and VEC schools are owned and run by 38 Vocational Education Committees in accordance with the Vocational Education Act of 1936. About 93% of their funding is provided by the Irish Department of Education with the balance coming from the Vocational Education Committees.

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271

wanted to create a support group for teachers. It has been an influential force in popularizing IT in Irish education. The Society draws its membership from teachers at every level in the system as well as from among Department of Education inspectors and others who are involved in education. In the 1980s, membership rolls approached 700. A number of the local branches throughout the country are active in hosting computer fairs and workshops; and since 1991, CESI has hosted an annual conference, attended by an average of 150 delegates, at which practitioners demonstrate the ways they use computers to enhance learning. Higher education. Because every teacher needs skills in the area of IT, not just those specializing in technological areas, all of the colleges of education and the university departments of education in Ireland have begun to make wider preservice education opportunities available in IT. The nature of IT provision in the different colleges varies, but they all provide hands-on instruction to the students who are in teacher training programs. Specialized training programs in IT first began to appear in 1973 when a part-time diploma in Computers in Education was initiated by Trinity College in Dublin. In all, 575 teachers have so far obtained a formal qualification in educational computing by completing that program. Another 400 teachers have received similar diplomas from St.Patrick's College in Maynooth; and Thomond College, now the University of Limerick, has issued 30 such diplomas to teachers."^ Since 1979, a total of 28 Irish teachers have also been awarded M.A., M.Phil., M.Sc, and doctoral degrees in educational IT. The results of their post-graduate research are disseminated through teachers' subject associations, the Educational Studies Association of Ireland, and the Computer Education Society of Ireland. Ireland's Teachers' Centres have been especially active in providing inservice IT training to teachers. In all there are 22 Centers located around the country to provide different levels of service related to their resources and funding. While the Department of Education pays the salaries of Center staff and also provides some funds for running costs, the Centres are otherwise independent of existing institutions and must charge fees to cover the expense of delivering inservice courses. Therefore, the teachers who participate in these courses do so in their own time and with their own funds. Nevertheless, in the 6 years between 1980 and 1986, Drumcondra's Teachers' Center ran 14 IT courses, varying in duration from 8 to 100 hours, for a total of 775 teachers. And in the 9 years between 1982 and 1991, Blackrock's Teachers' Center in Dublin ran 45 IT courses which provided an average of 20 hours of instruction to each of 736 teachers. The inservice courses the Teachers' Centres offer to school administrators, career guidance counsellors, and others also contain elements of IT. While the possession of a diploma of this kind makes formal recognition of the expertise a teacher has acquired in the educational use of computers, it does not entitle him or her to any additional payment.

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PETER J. MCKENNA

Projects sponsored by the European Community have provided another avenue of assistance to Irish teachers interested in using IT. Ireland's Department of Education set up the National Information Technology in Education Center in 1988 at the invitation of the Commission of the European Communities. This Center fosters the integration of IT in primary and postprimary schools through a computer-based electronic network which provides databases and e-mail communications to schools worldwide. Since 1990, a Dublin primary school has hosted FrEDMail, which provides links to North America, South America, South Africa, and Australia. Thomond Videotex operates as another online interactive service for students and teachers, and Petra-Link is an EC-funded project that involves both Denmark and Ireland. Finally, the European Studies Project in Ireland is an EC-supported initiative which helps young people to develop a range of IT skills in inter-school communication and to understand relationships between Ireland and the United Kingdom within the wider context of Europe. To summarize, the kinds of initiatives Irish teachers took and the support that certain organizations provided for IT in education have been many. Some that can be mentioned among the most useful were packages and publications such as the magazine Primary computing;^ a book on Turtle Graphics by a group of primary teachers in East Cork; a booklet on e-mail and telematics by a second-level teacher in Dublin (MacHale, 1990); a control interface and a computer enhanced videotape multimedia system developed by the Marino Institute of Education; and a number of reports issued by the Department of Education to support IT use in classroom instruction (on topics such as algorithms, COMAL, word processing, databases, and spreadsheets). Together, all such initiatives and developments have led to the present situation, where there is a considerable level of computing activity in the Irish schools.

The Use of IT in Irish Schools Primary Schools The report of the Primary Education Review Body (1990) estimated that about 1/3 of Ireland's primary schools had computers at the end of the last decade. Given the likely increases in the number of primary schools which have acquired computers since then, it is estimated that now closer to 1/2 of all primary schools have computers available for instruction. Two publications produced by the Department of Education, Information technology in primary schools: Guidelines and Information technology in ^

This magazine, edited by L. N. Frost, is published 4 times a year in DubUn by the Church of Ireland College of Education.

NIT IN THE IRISH SCHOOL SYSTEMS: A SUMMARY

273

primary schools: Educational software, have been valuable resources for primary schools preparing to implement IT programs. The computer as an integral tool. The purpose of IT in primary schools is to serve the existing curriculum which is concerned with the total development of the child. The computer is not an object of study but rather a tool to be used when appropriate, so IT in the primary school is treated as a cross-curricular resource and is integrated into the normal work of the school. Thus, in the primary schools where IT is being used, the range of computerrelated activities employed can be very broad. As the primary curriculum encourages exploration, cross-curricular project work is very important, and software packages that are content free such as word processors, database programs, drawing programs, desktop publishing packages, and teletext simulations are very useful tools for this purpose. They facilitate project work such as the production of school magazines, the publication of local history texts, the production of concert programs, artwork, music, and so on. Normally in the primary schools, a small group of pupils work at the computer while the rest of the class is engaged in other activities that may or may not be computer-related. The advantage of this arrangement is that computer use gets treated as a commonplace part of school work rather than as something unusual or special. In this way computers both serve the needs of children and are only used where appropriate. Children develop various computer skills through these activities, but the main objective is to develop their creative and social skills. Using a variety of computer applications helps to accomplish this. For example, word processing can improve skills in writing, editing, criticism, and judgment; desktop publishing packages help to develop skills in design and communications; LOGO provides an environment that promotes practice with problem-solving; and adventure games and simulations develop social, language, and imaginative skills. A noteworthy feature of a primary school project conducted in 1992 by the National Information Technology in Education Center was the use of wide area networking to foster the exchange of local information and the collaborative writing of stories in both English and Irish. A 1984 pilot project established by the Curriculum Unit of the Department of Education proved to be a significant step in developing IT use at this level. Participants in the project were 34 schools chosen to represent all types of primary schools, urban and rural, big and small, affluent and disadvantaged, boys', girls', and mixed-sex schools. The project found that computers had a wide variety of applications in primary education and that the children in the project derived considerable educational benefit from interacting with them. The most particular benefits were noted in the areas of language development, problem-solving, and social skills. Computers were also found to have potential for catering to individual learning needs across a wide range of abilities. Children of high intellectual ability were stimulated and

274

PETER J. MCKENNA

challenged while those in need of remedial help also derived considerable benefit. Special Education An especially successful aspect of the 1984 primary project pertained to the use of computers with handicapped children. It was found that children with a mild mental handicap could use computers successfully, and the reinforcement of basic concepts was made more interesting and stimulating for them when they did. The greatest gain for children with a moderate mental handicap was in the area of language development. For them, skills such as questioning and anticipation showed improvement, and project work of a high standard was accomplished. For children with physical handicaps, the use of peripheral devices to compensate for the absence of motor control was particularly beneficial. A Braille word processor, large screens, and voice synthesizers were successfully used with visually impaired children; and children with profound hearing impairments were able to use software for word processing, data manipulation, control technology, and reinforcement. In recognition of this potential that computers and associated peripherals showed for reducing or eliminating some of the problems of disability, IT has been increasingly used with pupils in special education. Perhaps most notable is the crucial importance of IT as a communication aid for children who are unable to speak or write. The range of computer-related activities undertaken by pupils in special classes in Ireland is similar to that of their peers in normal classes. For example, one special class produced a yearbook which was exhibited at the Student Fair sponsored in 1991 by the Computer Education Society of Ireland. In keeping with Ireland's policy intention to integrate as many students with handicaps as possible into existing schools, the Department of Education made special provisions of resources to assist a number of second-level schools in accommodating students with disabilities. Portable personal computers, for one thing, have shown high success in integrating students with handicaps into ordinary schools. The MicroElectronics Resource Center, established in 1982 at the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin, supports educational work with handicapped children. It makes advice available to all teachers, free of charge, about how to use microcomputers and associated peripherals with pupils who have a wide range of special needs. In addition, the European Community's HANDYNET project, whose Irish agency is the National Rehabilitation Board, is in the process of compiling a database of technical aids for people with handicaps. This resource will be available to Ireland's schools in the near future.

NIT IN THE IRISH SCHOOL SYSTEMS: A SUMMARY

275

Second-Level Schools Some recent surveys of Irish schools indicate that the number of computers in second-level schools is increasing steadily. (Keating [1990] sampled 132 schools; and Hourihan [1990] sampled 296.) Additional supporting information comes from reviewing the 1989-90 and 1991-92 school application forms, v^hich identify how many students select the Leaving Certificate Computer Studies option. The 1991-92 forms suggested that over half of the schools had 15 or more machines. In a class of 30, this would provide one machine for every two pupils. (Table 1 reports a smaller average pupil-to-teacher ratio of 20:1.) But one cannot extrapolate the average number of computers in Irish second-level schools very accurately this way because some schools may still have only the single computer given to them by the Department of Education while others may have acquired 50 computers or more. The norm regarding computer arrangements in second-level schools is to have a dedicated computer laboratory which is timetabled for specific groups at designated times. Thus, computer use in second-level schools is typified by whole-class teaching with the available computers being shared between groups of students. Although this situation satisfies certain organizational and security requirements, it does not help to promote the integration and acceptance of computers as an ordinary aspect of school work. Apparently, software for computer-aided learning (CAL) is little used at this level, but THE integrated packages that contain more than one application are popular. Most integrated packages incorporate a word processor, a database, and a spreadsheet package, and many, such as AppleWorks and Microsoft Works, also add graphics and communication facilities. Desktop publishing is also used in many second-level schools. In co-educational schools, girls have generally been observed to respond positively to the information processing aspects of IT and not to the technical aspects, which are more interesting to boys. IT has had an important role to play in the delivery of career and guidance information to second-level students. The biggest single users of the network of the National Information Technology in Education Center have been career guidance teachers. Indeed, they actively promoted the use of this network for implementing an online or disk registration process that allows second-level students to enroll in third-level courses. The same network also provides access to Campus 2000 where information on careers and third-level courses in the United Kingdom can be found. Proposals are currently under consideration for a computer-based guidance system which will provide information on third-level courses throughout Europe.

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PETER J. MCKENNA

There is also a rather strong awareness at this school level of the importance of Ireland's telecommunications networks as a resource for the educational system. The Green Paper acknowledges that "The use of new information technologies-for example, computers, interactive video, and electronic mail—is likely to be a more familiar feature of classroom life in the future" (Department of Education, 1992, p. 134). Many schools now use email and noticeboards and access online databases. But difficulties associated with time constraints have inhibited the use of communications technologies in the classroom. The implementation of a Transition Year between the junior and senior cycles in a growing number of schools offers an opportunity for integrating these technologies more fully into the curriculum. IT in junior cycle syllabi. The Junior Certificate program includes a Computer Studies syllabus, for which enrollment is optional. While the syllabus provides a comprehensive list of topics, teachers are free to choose the ones that are most suited to the computing resources at their disposal. Students spend approximately 70 hours on the course, completing them either within one year's time or spread out over three years. In 1991-92, the percentages of junior cycle students taking Computer Studies were 38.8% in the first year, 24% in the second, and 14% in the third. The range of topics given by the Computer Studies syllabus is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. General Topics with Examples from the Junior Cycle Computer Studies Syllabus

Topic Area

Examples

Computer systems Imperative programming Descriptive programming Data Generic software Control and monitoring History Applications in society

ROM, RAM, input and output devices variables, selection, and iteration rules and structured data collection, presentation, databases word processors, spreadsheets, databases sensors, counters, logic circuits development from 1st to 4th generation languages libraries and airline reservations

Source: Computer Studies Syllabus, Department of Education 1991/1992.

Most other subjects of the Junior Certificate program have a recently revised syllabus because of the many curricular reforms that occurred in the last two decades, and some of them contain significant IT components. A Junior Certificate Keyboarding course of 12 to 20 hours aims to develop keyboarding techniques on typewriters, computers, or word processors. In the Business Studies syllabus, an IT section is geared to foster positive attitudes toward computers and develop basic skills in the business uses for IT (such as skills with keyboards and the storage, retrieval, and transmission of data).

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Business Studies is taken by about 70% of Junior Certificate students and slightly more girls than boys. The syllabus for Technical Graphics has a small element of computer graphics related to computer-aided design and intended to give students hands-on experience in producing computer-generated drawings. The subjects of Metalwork and Materials Technology (Wood) also include aspects of computer-aided design and computer-assisted manufacture. Technology, a new junior cycle subject that was introduced with the Junior Certificate program in 1989, covers all aspects of technology including IT. Students who take this course are expected to gain knowledge of graphics packages and robotics. IT in senior cycle syllabi. A Computer Studies module was introduced for senior cycle second-level schools in 1980 as part of the Leaving Certificate mathematics syllabus. The module is optional, monitored independently of the rest of the syllabus, and takes about 35 hours to complete. Approximately 1/4 of schools offer it, and about 15% of the national student cohort, or about 7,000 to 8,000 students, take it. While the majority of schools do not teach the Leaving Certificate Computer Studies module and probably do not emphasize programming, they are likely to be using desktop publishing, control technologies, or some other computer applications. This situation may be expected to change in that the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has recently begun to speak about the "entitlement" of students to acquire a basic competency in IT skills (NCCA, 1993). Table 3 indicates what percentage of the schools that offer the Computer Studies module cover each of its syllabus topics. As shown, programming gets almost universal attention. Students also use computers for project work related to the mathematics syllabus. Some of the more specific topics recommended for the module include problem analysis and structured diagrams; a high-level language such as COMAL; a low-level language such as CECIL or CSSP; the concepts of input, output, branching, and looping function; devices for input and output; and so on. Other Leaving Certificate syllabi that explicitly mention the use of computers are the ones for Technical Drawing and Physics. The syllabus for Technical Drawing requires that students gain an "awareness of developments in computer graphics." The Physics syllabus suggests using computers to simulate processes that cannot be easily reproduced in the school laboratory.

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Table 3. Rank of Syllabus Topics by the Percent of Schools That Include Them in Senior Cycle Computer Studies Modules

Topic Programming Word processing Databases Spreadsheets History of computers Computers in society

Percent Schools 96 59 49 45 43 33

Topic Computers in architecture Graphics Keyboarding Business Communications Control Desktop publishing

Percent Schools 20 14 7 5 3 3 1

Note: Only the 200 schools that offer the senior cycle Computer Studies module are included in the table. Source: Computer Studies Application Forms, Department of Education, 1991/1992.

IT in other vocational courses. Several initiatives undertaken by the Commission of the European Communities have helped to stimulate the development of vocational training opportunities in IT within Ireland's second-level sector. Euro TecneT led to a series of projects. With the support of the Department of Education, schools were given grants for the purchase of computer equipment and began by establishing two programs, one in IT for Electronics, the other in IT for Data Processing. These courses demonstrated that computing could provide much broader and more relevant experiences for many students and also helped change training in the field of electronics from a theoretical-mathematical approach to a systems approach. The experience gained from Euro TecneT had a major influence on the development of the Vocational Preparation and Training Programs (VPT-1 and VPT-2) and the Leaving Certificate Vocational Program, all of which require a minimum of 40 hours of training in new technologies. Of the courses in the vocational programs that teach generic computer skills, the Computer Studies and Computer Applications modules have the highest take-up by students, and the content of these modules improved as more resources became available. In the area of technology education, CAD (computer-aided design) software is used extensively for Technical Drawing courses as well as in Engineering and Construction Studies. CNC (computerized numerical control) training machines driven by IBMcompatible computers are also being used by many schools that offer Leaving Certificate Construction Studies and Engineering. Educational Administration While most of the drive for the instructional use of IT came from individual teachers, their schools, and their support groups, the advances

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made recently to computerize educational administration were taken on the initiative of central authority. This type of initiative may mark the beginning of a more direct role for the Department of Education in promoting IT developments in the education system. One major undertaking, computerization of the state's examinations system, is nearing completion. Prior to 1989, the whole system had been operated manually. This involved the annual processing of examination records for 124 thousand candidates, 1.1 million subject entries, 1.3 million attendances, and 1.3 million scripts. The present computer system accepts examination entries and assigns candidates to examination Centres; amalgamates examination Centres where appropriate and records attendances; processes examination marks and produces results, certificates, and statistics for issue to the schools and students; processes applications, appointments, and payments for superintendents and examiners; and creates stationery, question-paper packing lists, rolls, and advice notes for the examination Centres. The new system has improved both accuracy and security, reduced the stress on staff, and facilitated a faster and more accurate transfer of the results that determine the allocation of places in third-level courses. It also provides an enhanced service to chief examiners with its ability to analyze marking patterns and variances between examiners. One effect of this computerization effort is that there are now immense possibilities for statistical research on examination results which will be of enormous benefit for developing future assessment procedures. As another part of its IT strategy, the Department of Education is currently developing a series of related databases that will form the basis of a comprehensive Management Information System. A computerized secondlevel pupils' database was implemented as the first phase of the system in the school year 1991-92, and other databases will be established as resources permit. Personal details for the database are sought from each pupil only once by the Department of Education, upon entry to the second-level system. At that time, unique numbers are assigned to pupils to be used for all processing throughout their school careers. Currently, this database constitutes the source material from which all pupil information is generated for purposes of capitation grants (that are the grants per student made to the school by the Department of Education), teacher quotas, European Social Fund grants, examination entries, and student statistics. In addition, the pupil database greatly reduced the quantity of annual paperwork the schools must submit to the Department of Education. At present, schools return database information on specially printed forms, on diskette, or on computer printouts which conform to Department of Education requirements. It is hoped that a later phase of development will allow the data to be transmitted electronically via an inter-schools network. The possibility of extending the pupils' database into the primary sector will be considered at a later stage.

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School administration software is an IT area in which numerous schools have been investing. About 40% of the second-level schools operate some kind of administration package at present; many use packages that can generate a school timetable. Some of the packages were designed by Irish teachers; some are supported by various inservice courses. The Department of Education is in the process of evaluating pupil administration software packages and proposes to provide assistance to second-level schools in introducing a computerized administration system on a phased basis.

Conclusions The initial exploratory phase of educational IT is coming to an end in Ireland. Now various curricula and considerable numbers of computers and associated equipment are in place in the schools, and support services are available through agencies such as the National Information Technology in Education Center, the Teachers' Centres, the Department of Education, the third-level colleges, and the Computer Education Society of Ireland. A substantial number of highly committed teachers have developed expertise in educational IT, and they are using it, in a variety of ways, to enhance the educational experience of the children in Ireland's schools. To date the primary dynamic for change has come from the teachers and inspectors who were aware of the educational value of using IT and able to acquire sufficient resources for implementing some kind of computer use in their schools. The additional initiatives taken at the national and European levels respected and endeavored to build upon the commitment and expertise of these individual teachers. This support from central authority for the dynamic forces within the teaching profession is a foundation from which the experience gained over the past twenty years can be capitalized. The kinds of issues and options that Ireland faces ahead in relation to education and the new technologies of information and communication are presented concisely by Oldham (1993) and evaluated further by Bates (1993) and Drury (1994). Current important developments include the continued review of curricula and the devolution of authority to school Boards of Management. This shift of responsibilities to the schools provides an opportunity to directly involve teachers in developing the IT strategies for their own schools and will help to maintain the bottom-up dynamic that has so far characterized the adoption of IT in Irish schools. Such a paradigm is well fitted to the professionalism of teachers in Ireland. Much has already been achieved with limited resources. Well-targeted future investments in educational IT should have a very positive effect on the lives of young Irish people by helping them to acquire the skills and attitudes necessary to contribute to their society in the context of a wider Europe.

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References Bates, P.D. (1993). Primary-level response to the NCCA discussion paper "Education and the new technologies of information and communication." Unpublished paper, Computer Education Society of Ireland, Dublin. Coolahan, J. (1981). Irish education: Its history and structure. Dublin: IPA. Department of Education. (1992). Education for a changing world (Green Paper). The Stationery Office, Dublin. Drury, C. (1994). Second-level response to the NCCA discussion paper "Education and the new technologies of information and communication." Unpublished paper, Computer Education Society of Ireland, Dublin. Horgan, J. (1973). "Education in the republic of Ireland." In Education in Great Britain and Ireland, edited by R. Bell et al. London: Open University Press. Hourihan, J.D. (1990). A review of computer technology in the republic of Ireland's postprimary system: With particular respect to Cork City. Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis, University College, Cork. Keating, A. (1988). "BTSAI Survey, 1988." Business Studies Teachers' Association of Ireland Journal. MacHale, C. (1991). E-mail and telematics: School-based telecommunications for the 1990s. Dublin: Colaiste Eoin. NCCA. (1993). A program for reform (March). National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), Dublin. Oldham, E. (1993). Education and the new technologies of information and communication: Issues and options in Ireland (NCCA discussion paper). National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), Dublin. Primary Education Review Body. (1990). Report of the Primary Education Review Body. The Stationery Office, Dublin.

Dr. McKenna can be reached at the School of Education Studies at Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.

SHIZUO MATSUBARA

JAPAN'S NATIONAL POLICIES ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

Japan's Ministry of Education, Science and Culture prepares the Courses of Study for elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools, which serve as the national guidelines for the curriculum. The first systematic provision of computer equipment to the schools began in 1983 and targeted vocational courses at the upper secondary level Later, based upon the experiences gained from some pilot experiments that started in 1986, the Ministry began to promote the appropriate use of computers throughout elementary and secondary education. In the training of teachers on the use of computers, the local education centers for information processing have been playing a vital role. The newest Courses of Study include computer education as part of the subject Industrial Arts and Homemaking in lower secondary schools and in vocational subjects, mathematics, and science in upper secondary schools. It is also encouraged to use computers as tools for other subjects. However, the new curriculum for the lower secondary level was only implemented recently, in 1993, and the one for the upper secondary level was introduced the next year in 1994.

Some of the most important contemporary goals for Japan's educational system, including "Coping with the Information Age," were identified in the late 1980s by a Special National Council on Education Reform. In its final report, the Special Council (1987) highlighted the necessity for Japan to develop an educational administration that emphasizes diversification rather than uniformity, flexibility rather than severity, decentralization rather than centralization, and liberalism and self-reliance rather than being managed. Integrating the efforts of local and national administrative departments is currently seen in Japan as essential to effective educational reform. 283 T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 283-298. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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Structure and Nature of the Educational System Historical Background Following World War II, when the Constitution of Japan was officially published in 1946, the Japanese nation was granted the right of education as one of the basic rights. At that time, the Japanese educational system underwent a reform with the 1946 report of the United States' Education Mission to Japan playing an essential role in establishing the new system. In 1947, two new laws were applied, the Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Law. These laws made provision for a track system, introduced a 6-3-3-4 pattern of school years, extended compulsory education to a length of 9 years, and attached part-time and correspondence courses to the school system. Coeducation was also initiated throughout the system. The old education system, in contrast, had consisted of several tracks: an academic course in a 6-4-3-3 pattern; a higher normal education course with a 6-5-4 pattern for males and a 6-4-4 pattern for females; a 6-3-4 normal education course; an upper vocational course with 6-2-3 and 6-2-2 patterns; a 6-3 and a 6-2 vocational course; and so on. The multiple track system was essentially in effect from 1921 through 1944. With regard to curriculum, the new system prescribed that Courses of Study be written to act as national guidelines. The first one, provided in 1947, was modeled after the Course of Study then in effect in many states of the United States. Textbook oversight also changed in 1947. Whereas before that time, all textbooks were written by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MESC), thereafter they only required an authorization from the Ministry. In 1948, Japan's centralized educational administration was decentralized by law, for example, elected boards of education were established to accomplish school operations in the prefectures and municipalities. However, when the law was reformed in 1956, centralized administration was reinstated, and the open, public election system was replaced by a system of appointment in which governors and mayors select the people who were to serve as members of the boards of education. Educational Institutions The types of schools provided for by the School Education Law included elementary schools, lower secondary schools, upper secondary schools, universities and colleges of technology, schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, schools for students with other handicaps, kindergartens, special training schools, and miscellaneous schools. The miscellaneous label refers to

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the schools that are intended to give a wide range of educational opportunities to young people and adults. Figure 1 depicts the relationships among these school types. The 6-3-3-4 pattern is represented by the number of years students are expected to spend in turn in elementary, lower secondary, upper secondary, and then higher education schools.

School Year

T? 17 16 15 14 13

T2 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

T 2 1

Normal Age

Graduate Schools

24-

(Correspondence)

23H Junior Colleges

22-

Colleges of 21-1 Technology

20-1 19 18 17-

16-

1 (Part-time) (Coiraspondenu

Ml

Universities

m

Upper Secondary Schools

m

(FuH-Ume)

151413-

Lower Secondary Schools

1211109-

Elementary Schools

87-1 6H

5-1

Kindergartens

4 3

i

Source: MESC, (1994a), Education in Japan, Tokyo: Gyosei. Figure 1. Organization of the Present School System.

The 6 years of elementary school and 3 years of lower secondary school constitute compulsory education in Japan. All compulsory schools follow the nationally-uniform curricula outlined in the Course of Study while, at the upper secondary level, schools adopt different curricula or courses. Upper secondary schools, for example, are classified into general and vocational courses, which follow different curricula, and vocational study is further subdivided into the course for business, industry, or agriculture and so on. The percentage of the eligible population in attendance in the first grade of each compulsory school level was 99.99 in 1993, and among the youth whose ages would place them in the first upper secondary year, 96% were in school.

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286

About 64% of Japanese 5-year-old children attend kindergartens. In the first year of junior college or university, 40.9% of the relevant age groups are enrolled. Table 2 gives the distributions of students and teachers by school level as well as the percentage of teachers at each school level v^ho are female (MESC, 1994b).

Table 1. Number of Schools, Students, and Teachers in Japan and the Percent of Female Teachers at Each School Level, April 1993 Total Number School Level

Schools

Students

Teachers

Percent Female Teachers

Kindergarten

14,958

1,907,110

102,828

63.9

Elementary Lower secondary Upper secondary Special

24,676 11,292 5,501 964

8,768,881 4,850,137 5,010,472 88,041

438,064 278,267 282,499 50,217

60.4 38.4 21.8 55.1

62 595 534

55,453 530,294 2,389,648

4,184 21,111 131,833

2.4 38.7 9.9

College of Technology Junior college University

Note: National and private as well as public schools are included in this table. Source: MESC, (1994b), Mombu-Tokei-Ydran (Handbook of statistics on education). Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Tokyo.

Upper secondary courses can be taken as full-time, part-time, or as correspondence courses. The full-time course lasts 3 years, and both the parttime and correspondence courses take 3 years or longer. Colleges of technology last for 5 years and consist of full upper secondary education as well as the first 2 years of higher education. All students who successfully graduate from any upper secondary school obtain an equivalent qualification, including students who complete the third grade in colleges of technology and those who graduate from some miscellaneous or special schools. Upper secondary qualification is also due to those who successfully pass the Qualification Certificate Examination for University Entrance.

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Examinations Every elementary and lower secondary school in Japan assesses its own students' work, so students do not take any external examinations as final examinations at these school levels. External examinations are only given to serve as entrance criteria for upper secondary and higher education schools. Students who graduate from the lower secondary schools can apply for admittance to upper secondary schools or to the colleges of technology. Entrance to a public upper secondary school is based upon records from the lower secondary schools and upon scholastic achievement tests, which are conducted by the educational boards of related prefectures. Entrance to universities may be determined by some combination of the following 3 items: the Nationwide Examination, which is administered by the National Center for University Entrance Examination; achievement (and any other) tests a university chooses to use to assess students' aptitudes; and the credentials provided by the upper secondary schools. Levels of Decision-Making Curriculum. The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MESC) prescribes which courses will be offered in elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools as well as the number of standard school hours each subject will require. The Course of Study is the document that defines the national guidelines, objectives, and content for the curriculum of each subject or subject-area. Courses of Study are reissued by the Ministry almost every 10 years. Alterations are based upon the proposals the Ministry receives from the Council for Curriculum, whose members include teachers, researchers, and other persons of learning and experience.^ The latest Courses of Study were put into effect in April of 1992 in the elementary schools, April of 1993 in the lower secondary schools, and April of 1994 in the upper secondary schools. Finally, each school organizes its own curriculum in accordance with the Courses of Study and the relevant statutes. Degree of centralization. The responsibility for educational administration is shared between the Ministry of Education and the local governments and boards of education. The central education authority in Japan is the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. It assumes various responsibilities in the educational field such as planning and coordinating the integration of the education system (including its own administration system); providing '

For example, the last council was composed of 16 teachers or principals of schools, 34 professors or presidents of universities, 6 members of educational boards, 3 institute researchers, and 5 others.

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financial assistance for the improvement of teachers' salaries; and establishing schools and other educational and cultural facilities. The Ministry also provides guidance, advice, and assistance to the administrative heads of the local educational bodies. In every prefecture and municipality, a local board of education serves as the central education authority for that district and is responsible for administering the district's government services related to education, science, and culture (MESC, 1990c). Budget The financial responsibility for public education in Japan is also shared by the national, prefectural, and municipal governments. Expenditures made at the national level cover the cost of national educational establishments and services. Also managed at the national level are the uses of subsidies that have been earmarked for education (such as those funds made to prefectures, municipalities, or private educational establishments for certain purposes). Expenditures made by prefectures cover three major areas, the operations of prefectural educational establishments and services, salaries and allowances for the teachers in municipal elementary and lower secondary schools, and municipal subsidies for education. Municipal expenditures relate to the operation of the municipal educational establishments (except for the teachers' salaries in elementary and lower secondary schools). Public expenditures related to education, including those of local governments, rose to 20,258,332 million yen for the fiscal year 1990, which represented a 5.9% share of the national income or 16.5% of the net total expenditures made by the national and local governments (MESC, 1994a). Table 2 reports the 1991 expenditures by school level, per capita amounts, and U.S. dollar equivalents. Included in the table are private kindergarten and upper secondary schools. While public elementary and lower secondary schools do not charge tuition, private schools do charge tuition fees and often receive subsidies from national or local government in addition (MESC, 1990c).

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289

Table 2. Total and Per Capita Expenditures in Education for the 1991 School Year Total Expenditures (in Millions) School Level

Per Capita Expenditures

Yen

U.S. dollars

Yen

U.S. dollars

248,558 620,078

1,847 4,607

605,195 397,416

4,497 2,953

Elementary public

6,434,163

47,806

711,338

5,285

Lower secondary public

3,917,401

29,106

792,639

5,889

Upper secondary public private

3,182,822 1,206,189

23,648 8,962

822,616 765,624

6,112 5,689

Kindergarten public private

Note'. U.S. dollar equivalencies are calculated on the average exchange rate for 1991 of 134.59 yen per dollar. Source: MESC, (1994b), Mombu-Tokei-Yoran (Handbook of statistics on education). Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Tokyo.

Computer-Related Policies Goals Today in our societies, the increase in the use of new information media through computers and advanced networks is dramatic. Information technology is overwhelmingly employed in Japan in a wide variety of activities, and its promotion of a more highly information-intensive society for the future is expected to accelerate. Education has to face, adopt, and influence such changes adequately. With regard to the new technologies, the Ministry of Education has identified four primary goals. To accomplish them, it expects to design a variety of measures. The goals specify that Japan's educational system must: apply the new information media to educational purposes;

290

SHIZUO MATSUBARA

•

develop in its students the information and computer literacy they will need to make effective use of the vast volumes of information that increasingly becomes available;

•

foster the development of leading experts for an information-oriented society; and

•

provide more of a technology infrastructure for educational and cultural establishments so that information networks may be shared among them. (MESC, 1993b).

Hardware and Software Figure 2 shows the steady and rapid growth rate of computers in the different school levels in Japan since 1983. As the figure suggests, systematic provisions first began in 1983 to supply upper secondary vocational courses with technology equipment, though the subject-areas on computer literacy and programming started in 1973 in business and industry courses. In just a little more than two years, by 1985, over 80% of upper secondary schools had one or more computers available. Seven years later in 1992, 80% of the lower secondary schools and special schools and half of the elementary schools had also acquired at least one computer to use. Local area network (LAN) systems are spreading among the schools, too. They are currently installed in nearly 20% of schools (MESC, 1993a; Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology, 1993). The number of computers each school acquires is decided by the local authorities. Two major methods of procurement have been used. In the past, approximately 80% of the computers were purchased, and the rest were acquired by rental-lease. But because a computer rental company for education was established in 1992, the portion of computers procured through rental-lease agreement is expected to increase. Beginning in 1990, subsidies for "Furnishing Computers for Educational Purposes" were provided to all public schools. In the budget for fiscal year 1993, for example, a total of 19.4 billion yen (174.7 million in 1993 U.S. dollars) was allocated to subsidize computer acquisition for instructional use in the elementary and lower secondary schools. Future budget estimates indicate that about 70% of the lower secondary schools will each have 22 computers by 1995; the remaining 30% will have at least 3 computers per school. On a slower schedule, about 20% of the elementary schools should

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have 22 computers per school by the same year, with the rest having at least 3 computers each. Figure 2 and Table 3 (on the next page) show that close to 100% of upper secondary schools already had already acquired at least one computer by 1993. By 1995, 100% of them should have 23 computers per school, though schools already had 46.5 computers, on average, in 1993 (Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology, 1993; MESC, 1993a).

1983

1985

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

-Elementary + Lower sec. -^Upper sec. -"-Special Note: Every survey was implemented in March except 1983(May) and 1985(Oct.). Source: MESC, (1993a), Gakko ni okeru Joho-Kyoiku no Jittaito ni kansuru Chosa-kekka (Survey on situation of informatics education in schools). Figure 2. Changes in percent of public schools with one computer or more, 1983-1993.

Japan's educational software has been developed mainly by private software makers or by teachers in the schools. Some prefectural boards of education, with assistance from the Ministry of Education, have been committed since 1987 to the development of model software (MESC, 1990a). Software subsidies for the schools became available in 1990. At that time, the quantity of software packages in elementary, secondary, and special schools totalled .8 million packages. Table 3 reveals that the supply was more than quadrupled in 3 years' time, to a total of 3.7 million packages. Nevertheless, the average quantity of software types available per school is 22, an insufficient number for teaching (MESC, 1993a).

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SHIZUO MATSUBARA

Table 3. Summary of Hardware and Software in Japan's Public Schools, 1993 Software

Computers % Schools with One Computer (or More)

Total Number in Schools

Elementary

57.7

60,166

4.3

1,003,874

Lower secondary

94.7

191,831

19.2

Upper secondary

99.7

193,347

46.5

Special

86.8

4,978

Totals

72.6

450,322

School Level

Mean Number per School

Total Number of Programs

Mean Programs per School

Total Number of Types

Mean Types per School

72.0

177,102

12.7

1,985,350

198.7

330,225

33.0

6.5

25,539

33.4

14,690

19.2

15.6

3,714,954

128.1

633,418

21.9

Source: MESC, (1993a), Gakko ni okeru Joho-Kyoiku no Jittaito ni kansuru Chosa-kekka (Survey on situation of informatics education in schools).

Developments in the Late 1980s Implementation strategy. In 1986, the Ministry began to designate some pilot schools in which to conduct studies on the possibility of utilizing computers not only in computer education but also in other subjects or subject-areas. These studies investigated the potential uses of computers both as a separate topic of study and as educational tools within other subjects. On the basis of the results from the pilot studies, reports and guidebooks were then compiled under the Ministry's supervision. They recommend that, schools and teachers at all levels make some suitable use of computers, whether it be in the context of mathematics study to draw figures and process graphic data or in science study to retrieve information and process experimental data. Now, in each prefecture and municipality, the education centers for information processing disseminate this kind of information to teachers by conducting various training projects about how to use computers suitably in their classrooms (MESC, 1990a, 1990b). Organizations. In the late 1980s, three organizations devoted to the improvement of technology use in the schools were formed. The first, the Japan Society of Educational Technology, was established in 1985 to

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293

promote not only the exchange of information from studies and research with educational technology, but also to offer assistance with the dissemination of those results in the schools. In 1986, the Center for Educational Computing came into being. It conducts studies about standardizing the computer structure for education, and it disseminates information about the utilization of computers in education. For example, the Center holds symposia and seminars and makes booklets and videotapes to familiarize teachers with enUghtening computer activities. Finally, the Educational Software Information Research Center was founded in 1988 for the purpose of collecting, presenting, disseminating, and promoting high quality educational software developed by individual schools (MESC, 1990b). Computer-Related Curricula The contents of the newest Courses of Study seek to develop students' information literacy in several ways, especially at the two levels of secondary education. (As mentioned, the current ones were implemented in 1993 at the lower level and 1994 at the upper level.) Both lower and upper secondary schools are expected to use computers—as they may be occasionally demanded~in the context of mathematics and science subjects, although the treatment of information technology is typically more extensive in the upper secondary mathematics and science subjects. Moreover, the active use of educational media such as computers is encouraged throughout the respective subjects of elementary and secondary education. Computers can be used as tools for drawing figures, for word processing, data processing, information retrieval, controlling experiments, telecomputing, and so on; and, at any educational level, an independent computer course may be provided under Special Activities, such as clubs. In elementary schools, computers are used primarily to familiarize children with how they function, which the students observe in the course of using them as learning and playing tools (MESC, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c). For lower secondary education, the Courses of Study in addition have added a subject-area called Basics for Informatics to be taught as a part of the subject Industrial Arts and Homemaking. This unit actively develops students' basic skills for using information through the operation of computers. The unit focusses on four topics: knowledge of the basic structure and function of each component of a computer system (for example, the functions of software, input, operation, control, memory, and output); the basic operations of computers and the compilation of simple programs; applications of computers (demonstrated by operating software such as Japanese word processors, databases, spreadsheets, or graphics packages);

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and a consideration of the roles computers play and the influences they exert in industries and in ordinary living (MESC, 1989a). At the upper secondary level, one subject-area, Mathematics C, helps students through the use of computers to understand matrix and linear computation and various curves or statistics and to develop their abilities to think about problems and cope with them mathematically. Other subjectareas, Mathematics A-B, contain computer algorithms as a study topic. In science, the Physics lA subject-area includes data processing. In the subject of Home Economics, a subject-area called Living Technology covers informatics. And among the vocational subjects of the upper secondary schools, courses in industry and business have contained informatics education for some time while a subject-area on Information Processing now also forms part of the content of study in courses for home economics, agriculture, fisheries, and nursing. Additionally, the new Courses of Study allow schools to adopt a subject-area or an entire subject on informatics (MESC, 1989b). Teacher Training In 1988, the law that specifies teaching qualifications was reformed. Since then, all students who are in training to become teachers have been required for their professional qualification to take a subject called Teaching Methodology and Technique, a subject that includes the operation of information equipment. By 1990, all teacher-training faculties had specialized informatics courses available as well (MESC, 1990b). Table 4 summarizes the present status of informatics training among all of the teachers in the educational system. Just less than 1/2 of the teachers currently working in Japan's upper secondary schools and a bit more than 1/3 of the lower secondary teachers know how to operate computers. In turn, about 40% in each of those two groups reported that they could teach units on informatics. The teachers in Japan's public schools could participate in technology training programs planned by private and other kinds of companies when they wished, but the schools and education centers for information processing in each prefecture and municipality have also worked out various inservice training projects in recent years. These are taken by teachers on a voluntary basis. Centrally, the Ministry of Education made two kinds of inservice training available in informatics. It began to offer a special course in 1970 to the upper secondary business and industry teachers who had informaticsrelated subjects to teach. This course supplies participants with specialist training in information processing. Another training unit called the

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fundamental course was given between 1988 and 1992 to help train beginners. It taught basic knowledge and techniques with informatics to lower secondary teachers of mathematics, science, and industrial arts and to upper secondary teachers of mathematics, science, and information processing. In 1993, this course was changed from one for beginners to another special course, which mainly helps teachers learn how to use various software packages. For example, by participating in the inservice training, a mathematics teacher could learn to use a problem-solving software like CabriGeometre or a science teacher could learn about software programs for processing the data of experiments (MESC, 1993b).

Table 4. Number and Percent of Computer-Using Teachers in Japan's Public Schools, 1993 Teachers Who Can Operate Computers Total Number of Teachers

Elementary

Teachers Who Can Teach about Computers

Number

Percent of Total Teachers

Number

Percent of Operating Teachers

424,265

85,500

20.2

25,150

29.4

Lower secondary

263,482

94,897

36.0

38,102

40.2

Upper secondary

215,576

94,379

43.8

40,285

42.7

Special

48,825

9,652

21.1

3,330

34.5

Totals

949,148

284,428

30.0

106,867

37.6

School Level

Source: MESC, (1993a), Gakko ni okeru Joho-Kyoiku no Jittaito ni kansuru Chosa-kekka (Survey on situation of informatics education in schools).

Current Trends in Computers in Education Curriculum Informatics education is one of the main themes in the new Courses of Study. When the new subject-area Basics for Informatics was started in 1993 (within the subject Industrial Arts and Homemaking), some said it marked the real beginning of informatics education in Japan. Individual lower secondary

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schools or teachers decide if that subject-area will be selected for teaching, and most schools were expected to do so. The individual upper secondary schools also decide whether or not to offer a subject-area or a subject on informatics. In fact, a lot of the upper secondary schools do provide a required subject-area on Information Processing in their ^'ocational courses. Whether or not an informatics topic will be included in the teaching of other school subjects or subject-areas is largely determined by the individual teachers or groups of each subject's teachers. This level of decision-making applies, for example, to the inclusion in upper secondary schools of the topics Computation and Computers or Algorithm and Computer within Mathematics A-B and to Information and Processing within Physics lA and to the selection of Domestic Living and Informatics as part of the Technology subject-area of Home Economics (MESC, 1989a, 1989b). The more these choices are seen to spread and be successful, the more schools and teachers are expected to decide that they too will offer computer subject-areas and topics. Financing Increases The total amount of the budget related with information media has expanded each year. The Ministry of Education secured subsidies for furnishing computers and computer rooms since 1993. On the other hand, the Science Education Promotion Law changed the standards for new equipment. Now each secondary school can buy computers apart from the "Subsidies for Furnishing Computers for Education Purposes" if they are to be used in science and mathematics education (Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology, 1993). This is expected to increase computer use in mathematics and science for teachers whose schools' computers are housed in a common laboratory and unmoveable because they would be able to acquire computers specifically for use in their math and science classes. Priority Attention More pilot studies on computers in education are in progress. In 1993, each of the 300 education offices in the country designated one elementary school and one lower secondary school in its region to carry out the pilot projects. Generally, the teachers in these schools are assigned to implement the studies, but local authorities decide whether any school should have special teachers. Over a period 6 years, approximately 600 teachers are expected to be involved in the pilot study projects (Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology, 1993).

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Suggestions for the Future Future themes for government policy will probably emphasize three areas: (a) providing hardware to the elementary schools, (b) increasing the enrichment opportunities in teacher training, and (c) operating a library system for software and developing software for independent learning activities. However, traditional software for computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is not likely to spread much in Japanese schools. This is due to the fact that the entrance examinations to upper schools are operated in the form of written tests in almost all cases. Few teachers have time enough to either make or reform the CAI software they would use for their own lessons. It is important to use computers as tools for teaching and learning. It is expected that hardware will prevail and that a good many teachers within a few years will achieve a proper level of "teaching about computers" by means of inservice training even though no inservice training has been made compulsory. In the lower and upper secondary schools, teachers must learn about computers in order to teach students the subject-areas of Basics for Informatics and Living Technology. Moreover, Japan's Ministry of Education, Science and Culture recommends both the fostering of information literacy and the use of computers as tools for promoting learning activity. A lot of teachers, however, may hold a feeling of resistance against using computers. Most teachers are accustomed to explaining the knowledge of each subject. The mass production, high speed, and generalization of information through computers has reduced the knowledge difference between today's teachers and students of science. It is less necessary for teachers to provide students with a lot of the knowledge on each subject. We are confronted with a new era when it is considered the most essential literacy to be able to select, process, reconstruct, and transfer the information required from among a vast volume of information. From this aspect, it is necessary to use computers as tools in a wide variety of applications in education.

References Japan Association for Promotion of Educational Technology. (1993). Report No. 49 and No. 50. Tokyo. MESC. (1989a). Chugakko Gakushu-Shido-Yoryd (the Course of Study in the lower secondary schools). Printed Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Tokyo. MESC. (1989b). Kotogakko GakusM-Shidd-Yoryd (the Course of Study in the upper secondary schools). Printed Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Tokyo. MESC. (1989c). Shogakko Gakushu-Shido-Ydryo (the Course of Study in the elementary schools). Printed Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Tokyo.

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MESC. (1990a). Jdho-Kyoiku ni kansuru Tebiki (Guidebook for Informatics Education). Tokyo: Gyosei. MESC. (1990b). Johoka no Shinten to Kyoiku (Development of Information Technology, and Education). Tokyo: Gyosei. MESC. (1990c). Outline of Education in Japan (in English). The Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco, Tokyo. MESC. (1993a). Gakko ni okeru Jdho-Kyoiku no Jittaito ni kansuru Chosa-kekka (Survey on Situation of Informatics Education in Schools). MESC. (1993b). Wagakuni no Bunkyo Shisaku (Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture). Printed Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Tokyo. MESC. (1994a). Education in Japan (in English). Tokyo: Gyosei. MESC. (1994b). Mombu-Tokei-Yoran (Handbook of Statistics on Education). Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Tokyo. Special National Council on Education Reform (Rinji Kyoiku Shingikai). (1987). Kyoiku Kaikaku ni Kansuru Dai Yoji Toshin (Saishu Toshin). (Fourth Report—Final Report—on Education Reforms).

Dr. Matsubara works at the National Institute for Educational Research (NIER), Research Centre for Science Education, Shimomeguro 6-5-22 Megro-ku, Tokyo 153, Japan.

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THE KOREAN CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

In all stages of computer education's development in the Korean system^ the government has been strongly supportive. One of the problems with Korea's educational system, the pressure to teach the knowledge that helps students pass very competitive examinations in order to gain college entrance, has implications for the ability to strengthen computer education as well Although computers were first used in Korea in business high schools in the early 1970s, they were not introduced into general education until 1983. At that time, the government began to encourage computer use as an extra-curricular subject in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Computer literacy education became a focus in the late 1980s. Around 1989, the Ministry of Education recommended adding computer subjects to the curriculum and computer units to some regular school subjects. In 1992, these curricula were reformed to place more emphasis upon the computer as a tool. In May 1995, the Korean Government announced yet another ambitious educational reform plan whose vision is ''Education for all, anywhere anytime. The plan tries to shift the educational focus from current college preparation to life-long education. It prescribes the establishment of "National multimedia supported educational system'' to support the paradigm shift.

Korea was liberated from Japan in August 1945. The year of liberation marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of a long march to institutionalize democracy. It was a turning point from a closed society to an open society, and it laid the stage for making education equally available to everyone. Under the primary goal of providing democratic education, the Korean Constitution entitles every citizen to free elementary education and an equal opportunity to continuing education. However, the intent to provide free compulsory education was deferred by the Korean War and could not taken up for implementation until 1959. In the next years, the 1960s, Korea witnessed a remarkable economic growth, and enormous changes took place in all spheres of life. 299 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 299-317. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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The Structure and Nature of the Korean Educational System History During the first years of democratic education, the most salient feature of educational development in Korea was its quantitative expansion. The number of students in secondary school tripled, and entrance to tertiary level schools became more competitive. The rapid growth in enrollment resulted in crowded classrooms; insufficient numbers of teachers and physical facilities were available. While the quantitative expansion continued, efforts were made to improve the quality of education. In 1968, the National Charter of Education was promulgated, and it set the tone for what Korean education would aim toward in the years to come. The following decade, the 1970s, saw the diversification of higher education institutes. Because junior colleges accounted for a decent share of tertiary education, their programs were diversified to meet the industrial needs. Moreover, the rapidly moving processes of economic and social change gave birth to new concepts such as life-long education and adult education. The opening of Air and Correspondence College (Open University) was hailed as the belated means for releasing the strain of the narrow bottleneck leading to tertiary education. Beginning again in the 1980s as it had been in the 1960s, sudden growth in the school population and the drift of rural populations into the cities, as a result of rapid industrialization, left rural schools undersized and urban schools with too many students. The overcrowded classroom was the major drag on the development of education. Thus, the government created an educational tax in 1982 to finance the expansion and modernization of education's physical facilities and to raise the socioeconomic status of teachers. This effort made it possible to reduce class sizes from 60 to 50 students per teacher. Korean society has long suffered from chronic problems regarding private tutoring. Education is considered as a primary means for upward social mobility. As a consequence, private education, a method of obtaining added insurance for passing through competitive examinations, grew out of proportion—with total operating costs (including costs to parents) that eventually almost doubled the amount needed for public school education. To diminish these negative aspects, the authorities declared that a series of reforms was needed. In 1985, the Commission for Educational Reform was inaugurated as a consultative body for the President whose job it was to set

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the pace for system reforms. It was replaced in 1989 by the Presidential Commission for Education. Many problems of the educational system remain to be solved. For example, by virtue of the primary concern given to gaining entrance to schools at the next higher level, the system put too much emphasis on teaching the knowledge and skills that were needed for passing tests. To normalize school education, the middle school entrance examination was abolished in 1986. However, abolishing the middle school entrance exam created a narrow bottleneck at the entry point to high school. Because not all middle school graduates can be admitted to high school, they have to take entrance examinations to compete for a limited number of available places. Levels of the School System The Education Law promulgated in 1949 declared the adoption of a school ladder that would follow a singular track of 6-3-3-4. These numbers, appearing at the bottom of Figure 1, correspond to 6 years of primary school education, 3 years in middle school, 3 years in high school, and 4 years in college or university. For children between the ages of 4 and 6, preschool education is given by kindergartens and aims at providing an appropriate, nurturing environment for children and experiences that promote their healthy growth, both mentally and physically. Primary school. The quantitative expansion of primary education that continued throughout the political and social turmoils following the Korean War constituted a steady growth that can be attributed as much to the rising aspirations for education among Koreans as to the establishment of compulsory elementary school. At the time of liberation in 1945, the primary schools in Korea numbered 2,807 with a total enrollment of 1,570,000. By 1992, the number of primary schools had more than doubled to a total of 6,122. But the enrollment rate of the relevant-aged population rose from 64% to 98.9% in the same period, so while the number of facilities doubled the number of students enrolled in primary schools nearly tripled to more than 4.5 million, the total shown in Table 1 (see page 303). Middle school. The abolition of the entrance examination to middle school meant that all candidates from primary school would be accepted into middle schools. And in fact, nearly all, 98%, of those who complete primary school go on to middle school. Students are assigned to one of the middle schools in their district through lottery. Free compulsory education has been extended to

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middle schools in rural areas but in other areas, it will have to be made free and compulsory on an incremental basis.

3

4

5

Preschool Education

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Elementary Education

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

Secondary Education

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

Higher Education

Miscellaneous iMiscellaneous School School Special

1 2

3

4 I 5

6

7

8

9

10 I 11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Year of Schooling

Source: Ministry of Education (1993-1994). Figure 1. The Structure of the School System.

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Table 1. Numbers of Schools, Teachers, and Students, 1992 School Level

Schools

Teachers

Elementary Junior high High school College

6,122 2,539 1,735 626 11,022

Totals

Students

Student-toTeacher Ratio

138,880 95,330 96,342 48,265

4,560,128 2,336,284 2,125,573 1,982,510

32.8 24.5 22.0 41.0

378,817

11,004,495

29.1

Note: The majority of the 1,735 high schools are academic; 677 (39%) are business high schools. Source: Korean Educational Research Institute, Seoul.

High school. High schools are divided into academic high schools and vocational high schools. Entrance to their 3-year courses requires that candidates have completed middle school or its equivalent. As high school is beyond the sphere of free compulsory education, tuition and fees provide the major source of revenue for education at this level. In academic high schools, the aim of education is to give more advanced general and vocational education, and, due to the ever-increasing demand for higher education, the number of students who wish to be admitted grows steadily. As they begin their second year, high school students are split, according to their option, in three directions, humanities and social studies, natural sciences, or vocational fields. The majority of students opt for one of the first two choices as a preparatory course for entrance to college. Vocational high schools offer five types of focus, agricultural, technical, commercial, fishery, and maritime. The common denominator of the vocational curricula is a liberal education which provides the foundation for specialization. In addition, as it constitutes the major source of skilled manpower for a rapidly industrializing country, the government has provided incentives for vocational education. Other special high schools, which include schools for the arts and athletic high schools, provide gifted children with consistent and intensive programs at an early age so that their potentials can be stretched to the maximum. The first science high school was established in 1983 with the purpose of providing consistent and systematic programs to scientifically gifted children that would fuse the earlier eruption of their potential. Emerging as the direct outgrowth of heightening concerns for scientific and technological discoveries-which represent the strength of a country in the modern world, there are now thirteen science high schools in the country. Those who

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complete 2 years of courses in any one of them are allowed to enter Science and Technology University. Higher education. The institutes of higher education are divided into four categories, namely, colleges and universities with 4-year undergraduate programs (except in the case of medical colleges which require 6-year programs); teacher's colleges and colleges of education; 2-year junior colleges, air and correspondence university (national open university), and open colleges/universities; and others, like theological college or seminaries. In 1991, there were 11 teacher's colleges, 118 junior colleges, and 115 colleges and universities in Korea. Of the latter group, 24 were national and 91 were private. There were also 95 graduate schools and 193 professional schools offering master's and doctoral degree programs. Educational Administration The organization of educational administration consists of three layers of authorities, the Ministry of Education at the national level and local offices of education at the provincial and the county levels. The central authority, the Ministry of Education, is responsible for discharging the Constitutional mandates regarding education. It formulates policies, takes actions to implement the policies, publishes and approves textbooks, directs and coordinates the subordinate agencies involved in planning and policy implementation, and provides support and supervision to the local education agencies and national universities. In response to growing concern about the diverse needs of local education and the professionality that will be needed to deal adequately with them, local offices of education have been established in certain cities, provinces, and counties as well as in Seoul. Educational Financing There are three levels of educational financing as well, central government financing, local government financing, and private education financing. Grants from the central government and tuition are the major sources for financing public education while contributions from school foundations and the private sector are relatively marginal. The major sources that finance private education are entrance fees and tuition. But private schools play a vital role in Korean education and deserve government support. In terms of students, private schools account for 69% of those in kindergarten, 29% in elementary school, 62% in high schools, and 78% in colleges and universities. For that reason, the government provides subsidies to private schools, including scholarships, research grants, and the partial coverage of

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pensions for private school teachers. It also enacted a law exempting private schools from taxation in the acquisition and sale of properties. The central government's education budget is primarily supplied by tax revenues. It covers the expenditures of the Ministry of Education, national universities, research institutes, and—insofar as the financing of local education highlights a heavy reliance on grants and subsidies from the central government-of elementary and secondary schools. In 1993, the total education budget was nearly 9,831 billion won (12,288,750,000 in U.S. dollars) and accounted for 23.4% of the total government budget. Curriculum and Textbooks The framework of the contents to be taught at school is in accordance with the Education Law which separately articulates goals and objectives for each school level from kindergarten through high school. Article 155 of the Education Law guarantees an equal opportunity in education and, to assure quality of education, defines the curricula of the different school levels. These curricula, subject to regular revision in order to meet the various demands for education, become the criteria for developments in educational programs and textbooks. The kinds of textbooks to be used in the schools are prescribed by Education Decree. Only one type of textbook exists for elementary schools; it was developed by the Ministry of Education. For middle and high schools, a government textbook examination committee selects five textbooks from among the many submitted by different publishers for review. Schools are free to choose any one of the selected texts. The students' parents pay for them.

Developments in Computers and Education History Exploration (1983-1985). Computers were introduced to business high schools in the early 1970s. It was nearly 15 years later before they were introduced to general education, around the time when the Korean government declared 1983 the Year of Information Industry and prescribed a project called the Basic Plan for a Nationwide Computer Network. During this period of exploration, the Ministry of Education encouraged the

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introduction of computers as an extra-curricular subject for elementary, middle, and secondary school levels, and the Korean Educational Development Institute conducted a series of research studies. KEDFs research focussed on topics such as introducing computers in education, developing computer-assisted instruction (CAI) programs (of the simple drilland-practice or tutorial type), defining selection criteria for educational computers, and compiling a teacher's guide for computer education. Computer literacy education (the late 1980s). In preparation for the forthcoming information age, many studies were sponsored by government agencies during the second half of the decade to promote the introduction of computers to school. The Educational Reform Committee recommended that computers be offered as a subject in the curriculum, and the Ministry of Education declared a policy, the Plan for Strengthening School Computer Education, in 1987. Accordingly, computers were introduced as a unit in subjects like home economics for 4th and 5th graders, workshop and home economics for middle schools students, and business for high schools students. Also, Information Industry was introduced as an elective course for high school students. The focus of these additions to the curricula was on computer literacy education, and they usually included study of the concept and history of computers as well as their structure, use, and operation. In 1988, the development and distribution of CAI programs became a focus. Teacher recruitment. Mostly math teachers or teachers who took a preservice major in computers are working as computer teachers for extracurricular classes. Since computer courses are not compulsory, there has not been a systematic teacher recruitment. Instead, schools that want to offer computer-related courses often invite computer major graduates to act as parttime teachers. Major Policies The 1987 plan just mentioned, the Plan for Strengthening School Computer Education, was followed by another policy development in 1989 and another again in 1992. The first of the two was primarily concerned with providing the necessary equipment and training to schools, and the second reformed the curriculum to emphasize the use of the computer as a tool. The next paragraphs describe each of all three policy projects in greater detail. The 1987 Policy for Strengthening School Computer Education. The major objectives outlined by this plan are summarized in Table 2.

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Table 2. Problems and Solutions Identified by the 1987 Plan for Strengthening School Computer Education Problem

Major Task(s)

Lack of Educational opportunity

support extra-curricular activities; provide proper curriculum and learning materials

Computer hardware

provide sufficient number of computers and necessary peripherals; utilize computer laboratories and maintain computer systems

Computer software

establish systems for software development, distribution, and evaluation; develop software of high quality

Skilled teachers

expand teacher training opportunities; develop teacher training curriculum and materials; expand current inservice training curriculum

An administrative and financial support system

secure administrative and financial support; create a computer education research and development center

Source: Ministry of Education, (1987).

The 1989 School Computer Education Support Plan. As a part of 1983's Basic Plan for a Nationwide Computer Network, the Committee on Education-Research for Computer Networking was formed in July of 1987. By 1989, the committee had formulated a plan for supporting computer use in education. Concrete objectives identified by this plan included the goals to provide inservice teacher training; to develop and distribute CAT programs for elementary, middle, and high school subjects; and to provide a minimum number of PC-computers to the schools. The last goal entailed the specific intention to ensure that every school will have at least one computer lab in operation, and in 1989, Korea Telecom (in the Ministry of Communication) and the Ministry of Education entered into a joint agreement to provide a minimum of 31 computers by 1996 to all levels of schools. School computer education was carried out according to the 1989 plan, and the Ministry of Education carried out school curriculum reform and distributed computers based on the plan. Anticipating the upcoming scienceand-technology-based information society where computer use will be universal, the plan also specified some of the broader tasks for the education

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system such as the development of information-industry personnel, the improvement of science and technology, and the universalization of computer literacy education. Also in keeping with these objectives, the plan spelled out a long-term strategy for reflecting computer education in all levels of curriculum. To secure enough skilled teachers, the curricula of colleges of education and teacher's colleges were revised to include 2 to 3 credit hours of required and selective computer courses. Unfortunately, most of this training program is centered around basic programming with some application of word processing, although some parts deal with the application of CAI software packages. To strengthen the effectiveness of the inservice training courses they will take during their careers, all teachers are now required to have some basic computer training during their pre-service training. Teachers who teach subjects with computer units can take 60 hours of general training. For computer teachers, a special training of 120 hours has been planned. As for computer provision, a goal of 30 computers in every school by 1996 meant that around 200,000 computers would need to be supplied for the elementary schools. By the same deadline, 52,000 computers were to be provided for academic high schools and 840 for teacher training purposes. Altogether, this is expected to cost around 120 million in U.S. dollars. At the same time, the Ministry of Education plans to designate $30 million for projects to develop and distribute coursewares for 867 topics. To strengthen the support system, the Ministry of Education created a new internal position for coordinating school computer education and recruiting personnel. The Ministry also appointed a computer-related superintendent to operate computer education centers in each city's or province's Office of Education. Especially important was the creation of a computer education research center within the Korean Educational Development Institute to conduct various research and development in the area. The 1992 Revised Plan for the School Computer Education Program. Revisions implemented at this point were aimed to rectify some weaknesses in the original 1989 plan. To emphasize computers as a tool and the applications of information technology in everyday life, units such as the Use of the Computer, Word-Processing, Information and Communication, and Information Education (at the high school level) were introduced to the curriculum. Other major intents of the revised plan were to strengthen computer subjects, establish local area network (LAN) systems for improved efficiency, secure a computer lab operation budget, increase the developments

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in software, systematize pre-service and inservice teacher training, and to operate experimental schools.

Current Trends in Computers and Education Computer-Related Curriculum Table 3 summarizes the present plan of computer-related school subjects and hours in Korean schools, which are reflective of the most recent curricular reforms. However, in many cases some problems prevent it from being actuality.

Table 3. Computer-Related Curriculum (as Revised in 1992) by Subject and School Level School Level

Subject

Type

Description of Contents

Computer -Related Subjects Primary

-

voluntary, grades 3-6

extra-curricular activities 1 hour/week as needed

Middle

Computer

elective grades 1-3

computer or other subjects given 1-2 hours per week

High

Information Industry

core

6 units in agriculture, commercial, business, fishery or home economics programs

Computer Topics in Other Subjects Primary

Workshop

grade 5

computer operation, handling and maintenance; word processing

Middle

Technical Industry

grade 1

structure and use of computers

High

Business

grade 1

use of computer and word processing

Math

grade 1

algorithm and flow charts in algebra

Applied

grade 1

calculator and computer

Technique

grade 1

information and communication, skills in computer use and communication

Source: Ministry of Education, (1992).

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Software problems. Although the current curriculum focusses on the uses of the computer, that intention cannot be fully implemented when there is not enough application software available for the classrooms (less than 20% coverage of the total curriculum). To carry out the curriculum in a meaningful way, the development and distribution of application software, teacher manuals, and student materials are required. Equity problems. The revised curriculum also tries to equalize the educational opportunity to both genders. In earlier curriculum plans, computer topics were only offered to boys of academic high schools. (Traditionally, there were no girls in middle and high schools.) Computer topics now total 21 hours in Technique, the core course for boys, while only 10 hours are devoted to computers in Home Economics, the core course for girls. As for elective courses, computer topics in Engineering and Business courses for boys total 8 hours and 4 hours, respectively, and there are none in Home Affairs for girls. Nowadays, many schools have co-education and both girls and boys can choose to take courses that have traditionally been differentiated for boys and girls. However, overall, there is still a serious imbalance in computer educational opportunity between sexes. The gap in computer educational opportunity also exists between rural and urban areas. Around 31% of the 5th and 6th graders in Seoul own computers while only 14.5% of the students of rural areas own computers. As for middle school students, the percentage of students who own computers is 50% in Seoul and 14% among rural students (Lee, 1993). Provision of Hardware The status of the government's provision of computer hardware (PCs) to the schools, as of 1992, is shown in Table 4. The government is trying to speed up the schedule for supplying computers to all schools from the original 1996 deadline to 1994 for middle and high schools and 1995 for elementary schools. Some other future tasks to accomplish in terms of educational hardware have been specified as well. The implementation of school LAN systems, to begin in 1993, is expected to increase both the degree to which computers get used and the effectiveness of the learning that takes place with their use. Also, it is thought that at least one computer, together with a printer and a teacher's manual, should be installed in the teachers' lounge of every school. This should facilitate teachers' computer use and the computerization of school administrations. The desirable timeframe for that task would be sooner than 1996.

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Table 4. Status of Hardware Provision to Korean Schools, 1992 Number of Computers

Total Budget (in million won)

52.7 45.7

68,695 34,193

29,100 12,942

403 593

38.1 87.6

12,650 19,273

4,929 6,305

108

-

4,532

4,099

5,493

-

139,343

57,375

School Level

Schools with Computers Percent Number

Primary Middle High academic business

3,229 1,160

Teacher Training Totals

Notes: The total number of schools at each level are shown in Table 1. Eight hundred won is equal to one U.S. dollar or one million won is about 1,250 U.S. dollars.

Development and Distribution of Computer Software Together, the major pohcy plans from 1987, 1989, and 1992 outline the overall objectives for software development and distribution. As mentioned, KEDFs computer education research center for software development was established by the beginning of the 1990s, but the quantity of software under development needs to be increased. By 1996, KEDI plans to produce educational software for 118 topics, and software for 1,302 topics is targeted for development by the general public via the incentives of contests. Table 5 gives a tally by school level up until 1992 of the computer software developed under government support. Step-by-step, the software development plans estimated the following timehnes. Between 1990 and 1994, a computer software development environment should be established, computer software should be diversified with an evaluation system in place, and networking should be introduced. Then during 1995 and 1996, the research and evaluation function and the networking would be strengthened. Diversifying software development entails developing a guide for school teachers, private companies, and the general public that assists them to develop educational software more easily; sponsoring software contests to induce the participation of school teachers; and evaluating privately-developed software to ensure the high quality of programs used in the schools. To facilitate the distribution of software, it was decided that KEDI would provide software and user's guides to the Boards of

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Education, and they in turn would provide them to schools. In terms of contents, diverse software is defined by variation in its functions and its modes (for example, tutorials, simulations, and games).

Table 5. Number of Software Packages Developed with Government Support

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

Cumulative Total

Primary Middle High Common

13 6 6

23 15 4

37 30 15

-

35 29 18 3

36 30 22 2

144 110 65 5

Annual total

25

42

82

85

90

324

Annual budget (in million won)

65

178

447

587

662

1,939

School Level

-

Table 6. Distribution of Educational Software by Type and Number of Packages in Use According to a Survey of 400 Schools School Responses

SubjectRelated

ComputerRelated

Other

Number of packages in use less than 5 6-10 11-20 more than 20 Subtotal (number of schools) No answer Total

24.0 24.0 28.5 4.5

49.2 4.0 3.5 4.2

26.5 3.3 1.4 0.8

81.0 (327)

60.7 (243)

32.0 (128)

19.6

39.3

68.0

100.0

100.0

100.0

Notes: School levels were not differentiated for this report on the extent of software use. Source: KEDI, (1993), Education indicators in Korea, Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul.

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Table 6 provides a perspective on the qualitative aspects of using computers in Korean education as represented by the variety and distribution of software types. The data comes from a KEDI investigation of access in the schools to educational computer software. Of course, different schools will use computers in different ways. Educational games and subject-related CAI programs are more popular at the elementary level while computer-related practice and tutorial packages are used more at the middle and high school levels. The use of applications such as word-processing packages is not as common in Korea as in some other countries. Teacher Training Current pre-service training programs can be distinguished in two ways, by type of college and type of student. In Teacher's College, all students are expected to take 6 credit hours of computers; in national and private universities and colleges of education, 6 credit hours is also compulsory for business, home economics, and natural science programs. In either higher education setting, students who major or minor in computer education must complete 21 credit hours in computer-related subjects. The current extent of inservice training is summarized by Table 7 which differentiates training of three kinds. Basic courses deal with an introduction to computers (concepts and basic programming) and basic hardware structures, at a conceptual level. Enrichment courses employ some degree of hands-on programming experiences. And specialized courses deal with CAI types of software development and use as well as tool uses of computers, such as word processing and spreadsheets. As the table shows, only about 25% of all teachers had completed basic inservice training by 1992, 15% had taken enrichment courses, and less than 1% had taken specialized training.

UNNA HUH

314

Table 7. Percent of All Teachers who Completed Inservice Training on Computer Education between 1988 and 1992 Percent by Training Type School Level

Number Trained

Percent of All Teachers

Basic

Enrichment

Primary Middle High

74.321 24,438 16,726

53.5 25.6 29.2

31.8 16.8 18.8

21.1 8.5 9.6

Overall (number)

115,485

39.6

24.3 (70,965)

14.7 (42,960)

Specialized 0.6 0.3 0.8 0.5 (1,560)

Research and Implementation Computer-education related research on basic policy, computer software, computer curriculum, and teacher education is mostly carried out by KEDI and the provincial or local Office of Education. Universities and research institutes also carry out related research independently. Implementation is carried out via the operation of experimental schools. In those schools, which receive extra hardware and software from the Ministry of Education, teachers are expected to actively engage in using computers in the classes and to report their results to other schools. During the years between 1990 and 1993, 22 schools were designated experimental by the Ministry of Education and 127 by an Office of Education at the city or provincial level. The objectives for operating experimental schools are to distribute methods for computer education efficiently, to identify the benefits and problems associated with school computer education, to collect basic information for revision purposes, and to establish a comprehensive plan for improving the whole system of computer education.

Summary Computer education has been implemented in Korea with strong initiation from the government, including not only the Ministry of Education but the Ministry of Communication and the Ministry of Science and Technology. Introducing computers into education at the national level has multiple prospects for the future of Korea.

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Future Prospects First, the use of computers and telecommunications in the school learning process wiirfacilitate the shift of educational paradigms. In today's Korean classroom, most of the teaching and learning process occurs via the classical one-way action of information provision by teachers and acquisition by students. All sectors of society, including teachers, parents, students, policymakers, and private business sectors, strongly feel the need for a paradigm shift from the traditional teacher-centered, information-based education, over-driven by the desire to pass college entrance examinations, toward a learner-centered, total human education that emphasizes problem solving skills and creativity. Technological developments in video production and in authoring tools are being led by profit seeking markets in the education sector. In 5 to 10 years, the introduction of the concept of hypermedia environment will be possible, due to advancement of videodisc and CD-ROM technologies and the sophistication of development tools, and should further shift the paradigms in the way we think about the classroom experience. Second, educational computing will help to create a new culture based on information utilization. More and more, people's lives will depend on their ability to access the information available to them. Computer communication techniques such as electronic mail and computer-conferencing will be more common in several years. At the moment, e-mail is already widely used among university faculty members for national and international communication, and within this country, the communication service by Korea's Telecommunication Agency is starting to spread among students and various people even outside of institutions of higher education. Third, the computer extends the opportunities for continuing education. The Korean Air and Correspondence College (Open University) is developing many courses using computers and trying to integrate e-mail as a way to facilitate long-distance conmiunication between faculty members and students from remote areas. Challenges If Korea is to realize the full potential of these computing prospects and others in its educational setting, at least five challenges have to be met. The first four have to do with software, hardware, and teacher training; the last with changing people's vision of education.

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It is important to develop high quality and high-level, objective-based educational software. There should be teams of professionals to do this that include computer specialists, educational technologists, writers, teachers, video-specialists, graphic designers, and others. But at the moment, not very many such professionals exist in Korea. More sophisticated and easy-to-use authoring systems or tools must also be developed if students are to experience increasingly open and flexible learning environments that allow them to freely navigate through various types of data. Currently many private industries are working on this, but many of their own are not yet complete, and they mostly adapt foreign systems. We need to develop good Korean authoring systems and good high-level educational software. Hardware provision must be made more efficient and flexible. Although the government plans to provide school computers, each school's specific needs and implementation conditions (such as personnel, operation costs, technical capability, and special educational purposes) are not reflected in those plans. For example, the current computer hardware specification is standardized throughout all levels of education, and centralized and standardized provision and evaluation methods are not flexible enough to respond to differences in schools' needs. Another part of this problem comes from the fact that the unit computer cost set for government provision is too low to guarantee sufficient quality and capacity. Therefore, it is not possible to use open-ended types of software or functions such as CD-ROMs or high speed printing. For more effective computer implementation and maintenance, the provision of space and other facilities such as electricity and safety control systems need to be planned. Pre-service and inservice teacher training must be extended as well. There are not very many teachers in the country who are well prepared to implement various CAI software programs in the classroom or to help students use packaged software or to teach computers as a subject matter. The lack of qualified teacher trainers and too little of the other necessary recourses such as computers, peripherals, an adequate budget, and an organized teacher training program form another layer of this problem. Finally, unless people's vision for education and life changes, education and children will suffer. Although there is a strong need for change in education, not very much is happening for true change in Korean education. Children suffer from a heavy knowledge-based curriculum content and must pass extremely competitive college entrance examinations. In spite of the current national education goals, attitude and psychomotor domain courses like physical education, arts, and music are not practiced in schools in order

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to reserve as much time as possible for teaching more knowledge-based courses. In this condition, school education is not balanced among various educational goals and becomes simply a tool for college education preparation. Current society values high-education, high-achievement, and high-salary jobs, with high economic status as the barometer of success. The thrust for success defined only in economic terms should be reexamined. In light of the above, the introduction of computers into the education setting, the roles they play, and their impact must be seriously considered. There is a danger of using computers simply to reinforce the current system driven by college entrance exams and based on a rote-memorization-laden curriculum. This is an extremely costly and unwise use of computers. Educators, parents, and business partners should reflect more upon the true meaning of education and thus control the role of computers in such a way as to provide students with the opportunity to develop creativity, critical thinking, and a balanced outlook on life.

References Chung, Teackhee et al. (1993). A study on the analysis of the efforts for educational computing and its future strategies. Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI), Seoul, Korea. Chung, Teackhee & Kim, Sunook. (1991). Study on Korean education software development status (KEDI-CERC RM, 91-10). Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul, Korea. Huh, Unna. (1993). "The impact of computing in education in Korea." Educational Technology, (September):45-48. Huh, Unna. (1994). "Current problems and future prospects in IT education." Education Technology Journal, 9:203-215. KEDI. (1992). Study on the ways of educational LAN system application (PR 92-16). Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul. KEDI. (1993). Education indicators in Korea. Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul. Kim, Dongsik et al. (1991). Study on classroom networking for efficient use of educational computer (RR 91-12). Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul. Ministry of Education. (1993). Education in Korea. Seoul, Korea. Sohn, ByungGil. (1992). "Direction and prospects for computer teacher training." Computer Education Research, 1 (l):48-76.

Dr. Unna Huh is a professor in the Department of Educational Technology of the Hanyang University, Sung-Dong-Goo, Hang-Dang-Dong 17, 133-791, Seoul, Korea. She is also a director of the institute of Educational Technology at the same university.

ANDRIS GRINFELDS AND ANDRIS KANGRO

POLICIES ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA

This article contains a brief description of the education system in the Republic of Latvia. For basic and middle education, the Ministry of Education approves and enforces the curricula and standards. Each teacher develops his or her own syllabus and methods within the framework of the existing standard. Students can take optional subjects, and each school can expand the list of optional subjects. The policy for computerization is focussed on all of Latvia's schools, but in the first stage of implementation activities, the priority has been given to the middle schools.

Structure and Nature of the Education system Education Legislation During the last 50 years, the Latvian education system was part of the rather closed and strictly centralized education system of the former U.S.S.R. It is practically only since 1991 that the independent Republic of Latvia, with its 2.6 million inhabitants, has been able to get down to reforming its system of education. The Law on Education was passed on June 19, 1991. The Ministry of Education (1993a, 1993b) has identified the main principles that guide the education system in Latvia. They assert that education and upbringing must be of a humane and ethical character and that education's primary task is to provide conditions that enable individuals to develop their mental, physical, and professional faculties. Citizens of the Republic of Latvia have equal rights to education regardless of their social and property status, race, nationality, sex, participation in political or religious organizations, occupation, or place of residence. Schooling is compulsory from the ages of 6 or 7 until the age of 15 or completion of the 9th grade. The state language, Latvian, is a compulsory subject in all educational establishments. But minorities also have the right to education in their mother tongue, and the state provides conditions for realizing this right. Universities and academies are independent and autonomous establishments of higher education with their own constitution. 319 T. Plomp et al. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 319-338. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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Types of Schools in the System The structure of the education system of Latvia is shown in Figure 1. The diagram is not worked out in detail because, in the course of reform, diverse changes are occurring and new types of schools may come into being. The diagram may also imply a greater separation of school sectors than exists in physical fact. The dotted line across the Basic Education unit suggests that starting school grades may or may not be physically separated from 9-year establishments, but the figure does not reveal that many general middle schools also contain some or all of the lower grades within their walls. A g e 23-25

POSTGRADUATE HIGHER EDUCATION G r a d e

HIGHER EDUCATION universities, academics

12 —

MIDDLE EDUCATION GENERAL

PROFESSIONAL

H

VOCATIONAL

17-20 BASIC EDUCATION

15-16

compulsory 9-year general education school

"starting" school (grade 1-4) 6-7 Figure 1. Diagram of the education system in the Republic of Latvia

The major types of school at present are "starting" school, compulsory 9year general education school, schools and classes for persons with physical

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and mental disorders (marked with an S in the diagram), and middle education establishments. Middle schools may vary by type and by duration of instruction. As the figure shows, three types exist now. Middle professional education establishments prepare qualified middle-level staff, such as managers or head-workers, who are expected to continue on with their training in institutions of higher education. Vocational middle schools differ from the professional middle schools by the levels of knowledge and skills that are achieved. About two-thirds of the graduates from 9-year compulsory school either enter professional or vocational middle schools. The remaining third attend general middle schools. Higher educational establishments offer the academic degree of the Bachelor (ordinarily after 4 years of studies), the academic degree of the Master (after an additional 2 years of studies), and a certificate of professional qualification such as those acquired by teachers, doctors, or engineers. Postgraduate education establishments provide the opportunity to acquire a doctor's scientific degree in the respective field of science and, after that, the degree of doctor habilis. This scientific degree is next to that of a doctor's degree and has been awarded to scientists for developing new branches of scientific research and managing the thesis work of candidates for the Master's or doctor's degree. Levels of Decisions about Curriculum and Examinations The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Latvia determines school curricula and approves, confirms, and enforces the standards of education for basic and middle schools. The Ministry also specifies the requirements (the questions and the tasks) of the final examinations taken at grade 9 for basic education and grade 12 of middle education. At present, regulations are being worked out for certification of the teaching staff in all of Latvia's schools, including private ones. Standards. The Department of Curricula generally appoints working teams of scientists and teachers to develop standards, which are introduced for each subject separately. To date this has been done on the basic education level; in 1994, the introduction of standards will be completed for middle education. Each standard comprises the targets of the respective subject, the content, the educational criteria (stating what the student has to know and to be able to do), and the ways and techniques of assessing knowledge and skills in the subject. Within the framework of the standard, teachers can develop their own syllabi and methods or else choose such from among the syllabi and methods offered by the Ministry. Meeting the standard requirements and passing final

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ANDRIS GRINFELDS AND ANDRIS KANGRO

examinations ensures that each student has acquired a level of knowledge corresponding to the certificate he or she is awarded upon graduation from a basic or middle school. Curricula. Likewise, the Ministry of Education is responsible to determine which subjects the schools have to teach and the students have to learn in the system of compulsory education. Since the school year 1992-93, optional subjects have been introduced in middle schools for students to take. A subject can comprise a basic course and a specialized one. This allows for Latvian language and literature, mathematics, foreign language, history, and physical training to be taught to each student in every school; in addition, each student has to take 7 optional subjects chosen from two lists, one a list of courses the school must offer and the other a list of additional courses the school chooses to offer. Examples of optional courses available in middle educational schools include a second or a third foreign language, economic geography, informatics, physics, chemistry, music, visual arts, history of culture, housekeeping, craftsmanship, technical drawing, and so on. The number of hours required for each subject is laid down in the curriculum. Funding In principle, the Latvian education system includes state, local government, and private education establishments. But privately-run establishments are just now in the making. Thus by 1992-93, only 4 private general education schools had been registered in Latvia. The so-called local government education establishments (mainly the generally educative schools) are funded from two sources. Teachers' salaries are paid from the state education budget via the Ministry of Education and the other expenditures are covered by municipality budgets. The municipalities do not, however, participate in funding state education establishments (primarily the vocational, professional, and special education schools) which are financed from the state budget through the Ministry of Education or other ministries. In 1993, 13.6% of the state budget was earmarked for education. Unfortunately, this figure decreased in 1994. The budgets for the municipalities, the Ministry of Education, and other ministries are allotted by the government of the Republic of Latvia and approved and confirmed by the Parliament. In the school year 1992-93, the average cost of training one student was 150 Latvian Lats (or 255 U.S. dollars) in general education schools, Ls 500 (or $850) in vocational middle schools, Ls 365 ($620) in professional middle education establishments, and Ls 450 ($765) in higher education establishments.

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Some Facts and Figures Tables 1 and 2 give an overview of the distribution of students, teachers, and schools among school types in Latvia. All the data reflect the situation in the school year 1992-93 (Ministry of Education, 1993b). Table 1 identifies student numbers at each educational level. For example, 133,846 is the number of all students in the grades 1 through 4 regardless of whether they attend starting schools located in separate establishments, in 9year compulsory schools, or in middle schools. At present in Latvia there are 94 vocational middle schools and 59 professional middle education establishments. Of 15 higher education establishments, the main one is the University of Latvia.

Table 1. Distribution of Students according to Education Types and Levels Education Types

Number of Students

Basic education (grade 1-4)

133,846

Basic education (grade 5-9)

161,962

Special education schools and classes (for handicapped) Middle education General Vocational Professional

7,482 88,931 33,619 26,588 28,724

Higher education

41,858 Total:

434,079

Source: Ministry of Education (1993b), Education system of Latvia: Statistical data 1992/93.

Table 2 shows the number of students according to their school locations rather than their grade level. For example, students in grades 1 through 4 appear in the subtotals for compulsory 9-year schools or general middle schools or starting schools depending upon where they go to school. Only in

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the last few years has a trend developed to establish general middle schools that are limited to offering grades 9 through 12.

Table 2. Numbers of General^ Education Establishments, Teachers, and Students

School Type "Starting" schools Compulsory 9-year schools General middle schools Special education schools General adult education schools^ Total:

Number of Schools

Number of Teachers

93 464 379 52 41 1,029

699 9,130 21,273 1,862 400 33,364

Number of Students 6,723 68,625 245,830 7,482 8,249 336,909

Source: Ministry of Education (1993b), Education system of Latvia: Statistical data 1992/93. * Professional and vocational middle schools are not included in this table. 2 This student category was not included in Table 1.

A total of 33,364 teaching staff including school principals, educators and other pedagogical staff, are employed in the schools shown in Table 2. Hence in Latvian general education schools, on the average, there is one teacher for every 10 students. In some schools, this index varies within a range of about 8 to 14. Moreover in some schools, teaching is also done by others—for example, principals, educators, and other pedagogical staff- whose number constitutes about 18% of the total number of teaching staff. The weight of private educational establishments is still negligible. In Latvia's 4 private middle schools, basic education is acquired by about 0.1% of all students in those grade levels and middle education is acquired by 0.05% of the students in that age group. A peculiarity of the Latvian education system is that in a relatively large number of schools (220), the instruction language is Russian. Also in a number of schools (145), students who are taught in Latvian study together with students who are taught in Russian. In 615 schools, Latvian is the language of instruction. As a result of these language differences across schools, Latvian is the instruction language for only 68% of starting school students, 79% of the compulsory 9-year school students, 48% of the students in general middle school, and 63% of the students in special education.

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Table 3 presents a more detailed distribution of the students in each grade in general education schools. Up to now, the relatively lower number of students in the 12th grade could be accounted for by the fact that schools with Russian as the instruction language have contained only 11 grades. During the next school year, grade 12 will be introduced in those schools. The teaching duration in Latvian schools is 36 weeks per year, and school is generally taught 5 days a week. The law provides for a regulated number of maximum hours a week, which Table 3 also itemizes by grade level.

Table 3. Percent of Students and Maximum Lesson Periods by Grade Level

Grade Compulsory 9-year general education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 General middle education 10 11 _[2

Percent of Students

Maximum Lesson Periods per week

10 11 12 8 11 10 10 10 9

20 22 24 24 30 32 34 34 34

4 3 2

34 34 36

Source: Ministry of Education (1993b), Education system of Latvia: Statistical data 1992/93.

Computer-Related Policies Computerization in Latvia's Schools Nationwide computerization in Latvia's schools started in 1985 while the education system still operated within the purview of the former U.S.S.R. The computerization process was thus characterized by a high degree of centralization, beginning with its planning and funding stages and ending with the syllabi that were created for respective subjects in the middle schools. The intention was to solve all the problems in a centralized order: introducing a

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computer education subject into all of the middle schools, supplying schools with hardware and software, and training the required teachers. The process proceeded as follows. All establishments of middle education were supplied with computers (16-bit processor, 16 KB RAM, IBMincompatible) manufactured in the former U.S.S.R., and computer laboratories were set up. The subject "informatics and computer technology", requiring 68 hours of class time, was launched in grade 10 of all general education middle schools as early as the school year 1985-86. Initially, syllabi and textbooks translated from the Russian language were used in the teaching process. However, research teams were immediately set up in Latvia's higher educational establishments to prepare textbooks in Latvian, develop methodical aids and software, and put the computerization process on a scientific basis, that is taking into account the existing methodology of teaching about and with computers worldwide. At the outset, the teachers who were to teach informatics received training through inservice courses. Mainly, teachers of mathematics and physics were trained for this work. Concurrently, the students at the pedagogic higher schools in the process of becoming mathematics teachers began to take informatics as a second specialty. Attention was also given to the use of computers for students in training to teach other subjects by providing opportunities for them to acquire the relevant knowledge and skills. For this reason, beginning with the school year 1985-86, most students in training to be teachers learned how to use computers in the variety of subjects they are expected to teach during their careers. '^Computerization of the Study Process in Latvia (1989-1991)" After about 4 years of work on the process begun in 1985, the major effort to continue computerizing Latvia's schools took place within the framework, of the scientific-technological project called "Computerization of the Study Process in Latvia." The goals of this project were to organize and coordinate computerization efforts; to distribute funds for scientific research to be conducted on the problems involved in computerizing the study process; and to develop textbooks, methods, and software in this field. The project comprised 36 themes which were handled by teams of scientists from 10 higher educational and research establishments in Latvia. About half of the project's funds were used for developing and researching the problems involved in teaching informatics, while the other half went into exploring the possibilities for using computers to teach other subjects such as physics, chemistry, and languages (Latvian, Russian, English, German).

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The project developed methodologies of computer use for different subjects as well as appropriate teaching aids such as instructional software for tutorials, drill and practice, and so on. Some of the project funds were assigned to authors' teams for compiling textbooks of informatics. The project was designed to give much attention to obtaining practical results, testing them at general schools and higher schools, and implementing them efficiently into the education system. Towards this aim, use was made of inservice training courses for teachers and of workshops especially set up to create immediate contacts between teachers and developers. All the software and software systems were submitted to the Algorithm and Software Fund under the Ministry of Education, which supported their development. Software developed for the school computers during this time included editors of texts and graphics; data bases; spreadsheets; software for teaching languages, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy; and the authoring system "Riga". This effort has improved the use of computers not only in informatics but in other subjects such as physics, math, chemistry, and languages although the number of teachers using computers in other subjects is still small. Work on the project to computerize the study process in Latvia was coordinated with a nationwide introduction of hardware into the schools, with due observations of at least the following underlying principles: 1.

The task of modifying any of this newly-introduced hardware would be allotted to research teams working within the framework of the program as well as in connection to the higher schools involved with training the teachers of the future. The set of computers that each school received on a nationwide basis included 13 computers, 12 for students and 1 for the teacher (BK-0010 and the BK-0011) with 16-bit processors, data network, disk memory system (no hard drive), and one printer.

2.

The results of any applied research conducted within the framework of the development project would be oriented to the particular types of computers that the schools had received during the nationwide introduction period.

In neither execution year did funds for the project to computerize the study process exceed 10% of the funds invested in the acquisition of hardware for the schools. Of this total expenditure, it might have been more useful if a larger portion had gone to financing research work and the development of software and textbooks. Yet, in general, the relatively large investment of centralized funds into the acquisition of computers for schools, the unified

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program of research and development work, and the coordination of these two streams of activities has certainly contributed a lot to the field in Latvia. Also during this period, a teaching program was developed and demonstrated on Latvian television with the hope of promoting the teaching of informatics at school. The computer infrastructure of the schools was further developed by improving computer laboratories and by making a nationwide arrangement for servicing school computers. In addition, the Ministry of Education decided to introduce a new position in schools, another assistant principal to be in charge of computer-in-education problems. At present in about 50% of Latvia's general education middle schools, assistant principals are in charge of "computer-in-education" matters. In 1991, Latvia obtained a certain addition of more up-to-date hardware by participating in a joint program between the IBM Company and the former U.S.S.R. called "Pilot Schools". As a result, Latvia came by 8 sets of 10 IBM PS/2 computers. In 1992, the Ministry of Education was no longer in a position to finance further procurement of computers for schools or to support the project "Computerization of the Study Process in Latvia." Several separate contracts were signed, though, to carry on the most indispensable work. Part of this ongoing research into computerizing the study process is funded by way of competing for grants from the Council of Science of Latvia. Computer-Related Curricula As mentioned above, the particular subject of informatics was introduced in middle schools in 1985. Since 1992-93, this course could only be chosen as an option by students in grade 10 of the middle schools, among whom approximately 70-80% of the students choose to enroll. Until recendy, the process of integrating computers into other school curricula remained inactive. In other words, computers have not been used enough as an instrument for the teaching and learning of subjects other than informatics. According to information obtained from assistant principals of middle schools, only about 20% of all computer lab time is used for teaching other, non-informatics subjects. Within the framework of the project to computerize the study process, efforts were made to provide schools with appropriate software for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and language learning, but only some schools put the opportunities that were provided into practice, either for teaching other subjects or for performing other activities such as school administration and clerical duties. The successful teaching of each subject, including informatics, with the use of computers, is not possible without

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fulfilment of at least three conditions: the existence of an education standard or curriculum, a technical guarantee of the subject software and hardware (including maintenance), and the presence of appropriately instructed teachers. Education standards. As noted earlier, the basic document which limits the content of each subject is the education standard. In 1989, the middle schools of Latvia were supplied with a syllabus for informatics that had been elaborated at the University of Latvia and the Ministry of Education of Latvia. At the same time, the elaboration of an education standard for a special informatics course had been started. (It seems that education standards for informatics remain valid for only three to five years because of the tremendous impact even newer technology and software can have during this period.) Thus, two education standards have been prepared for the middle education system of Latvia at present: 1.

The basic course "informatics" for 1 academic year (68 lessons) can be chosen as an option by each student in grade 10 of the middle school.

2.

The special course of "informatics" for middle schools lasts for 3 academic years (204 lessons) and may be chosen as an option by students as they progress from grade 10 through grade 12.

The contents of these standards are described in Table 4. In addition to the aims and themes listed in the table, both standards include a set of criteria for identifying the knowledge and skills to be achieved as well as forms and methods for control and testing. Both standards were developed by a wide range of specialists from the schools and the University of Latvia. Moreover, they were evaluated by independent experts before their implementation began in the education system of Latvia. The standards described in Table 4 must be viewed not as a list of strict orders, but as a set of introductory themes where only the final level of knowledge and skills is defined rather strictly. Thus, teachers are free to choose their own methods for reaching the final point. Teachers can elaborate their own syllabi and determine the proportion of theoretical and practical lessons to use according to the methodological literature and the availability of hardware, software, and textbooks. As mentioned before, the majority of 10th grade students choose to take the basic course of informatics but the number who take the special course differs more widely across schools according to the qualifications of the teachers and the hardware and software that exists in each particular case.

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Table 4. Education Standards for Informatics Courses in Latvia's Middle Schools Education Standards Basic Course in Informatics (optional in grade 10) Aims -

to recognize the basic terms in informatics to learn how to use some applied software products to get an idea about the application of computers in different areas

Themes - information in modern society information processing use of computers for information processing main parts of computer basic concepts of algorithms and programming text and graphic editors databases spreadsheets computers in education information and telecommunication systems and networks

Special Course in Informatics (optional for grades 10-12) Aims -

to strengthen and develop the knowledge and skills obtained in the basic course to master the basic conceptions of computer science to get an idea about the possibilities of modem information technology

Themes - information and informatics processes theoretical and physical fundamentals of computers algorithms and their properties programming languages (BASIC or PASCAL) programming practice (elements of mathematical modeling) applied software practice

The availability of hardware. The percentages of middle schools in Latvia that have had computers over the years since 1985 are presented in Figure 2. Aside from quantity, the type of hardware available is another important factor influencing how computers can be used in schools. Until 1990, all schools were supplied with only the computers manufactured in the former U.S.S.R. Approximately 85% of the total number were of the BK-0010 or BK-0011 school computer classes. The next year, 1991, could be mentioned as a starting point for a new stage of computerization because about 100

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middle schools (from a total of 379) were supplied then with IBM personal computers (90 stand-alone IBM PC/AT/286 computers and more than 10 IBM PS/2 computers). According to the data on Latvia from the 1992 lEA Computers in Education study (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993), the median number of computers per middle school is 13. Already in 1990 as Figure 2 shows, practically all of Latvia's middle schools were supplied with computers (not less than 13 computers per school). This can be compared to median numbers of computers in middle schools that vary from 5 to 47 in the other participating countries of the lEA Computers in Education study.

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

HYear Figure 2. Percentage of middle schools of Latvia having computers over the years.

The availability of software. The main applications of computers in the middle schools of Latvia are for the subject "informatics"; only in some schools have computers been used for teaching other subjects such as mathematics, physics, or languages. During the initial stages of computerization, neither the computer manufacturers nor other organizations acted as developers of educational software for school computers. Therefore, schools were at first supplied with the translator of only one programming language (BASIC or FOCAL). Practically all of the basic types of software the schools now use (that is, text and graphic editors, database, spreadsheet, instructional systems, and program packages for informatics, physics, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, or languages) were elaborated in Latvia specifically for school computer use. The process of implementing this educational software into the middle schools has been supported by the Software Fund of the Ministry of Education of Latvia during recent years.

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The process that occurred in Latvia to develop educational software for informatics could be divided into two stages. From 1985 until 1988, only a few programs for school computers had been developed. Therefore, a number of difficulties arose, and sometimes the process of teaching informatics was simply reduced to programming in BASIC or using the authoring system RIGA to design language learning and other educational programs for computers (such as drill and practice or tutorial programs). During the next period from 1988 to 1992, all kinds of applied software for school computers were developed and implemented into the education system step by step. The most popular software worldwide, as well as in Latvia, are database, spreadsheet, and text editor programs as well as a great number of educational software packages such as drill and practice, tutorials, etc. (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993; Pelgrum & Plomp, 1993). The period of the last three years, 1991 to 1993, must be mentioned separately because it marked the initial stages of implementing IBM/PC computers into the middle schools of Latvia. That process alone is extremely expensive. Equally or perhaps even more serious is the problem of needing to create modified versions of existing software and develop new educational software that can be used with the new equipment. Developing educational software is extremely expensive in Latvia due to high sales prices and the fact that there is virtually no market for such kinds of software. The process of cooperating among countries to develop educational software, as they are doing in the Nordic countries (Nordic Committee on Educational Software and Technology, 1991), may be a good approach to take for lowering the cost of these efforts. Textbooks. The situation in Latvia with textbooks and teaching aids could be estimated as unsatisfactory still. Experimental textbooks for middle schools that were published between 1985 and 1988 took into account the lack of hardware and software in the schools. Therefore, these textbooks are not usable now that the level of hardware and software equipment in the schools differs so drastically from what existed five to seven years ago. A new textbook entitled Informatics for middle schools was recently published. It is written according to the existing education standard for the basic course of informatics, covering the basic principles of informatics and the processing of text, graphics, databases, and spreadsheets. Thus, this textbook combines topics about computer literacy and major applications; programming is not included as a topic. One more textbook for the special course of informatics is in preparation for a 1994 publishing. Nevertheless, more activity and productivity in this field could be desired. In the near future, textbooks must be written that take into account how two kinds of computers (IBM and BK models) co-exist in Latvia's middle schools. According to the forecasts, this

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situation will continue for at least five to seven years because the funds necessary to update school computers and software are not expected to materialize soon. Teacher training. In the early stages of teaching informatics, mainly the teachers of mathematics and physics in Latvia's middle schools were reinstructed to become teachers of informatics. Such a training situation could not be interpreted as the best version of instruction for teachers of informatics. Therefore, systematic training of the teachers of informatics is now on the stage in two institutions of higher education in Latvia. The problem of providing inservice training for teachers of different subjects about how to use computers for their instructional purposes is also currently on stage.

Issues Several issues disturb the goals of computer education in Latvia. The most important of them are equity of access and integration. Equity of Access A considerable number of Latvia's 434,079 students remain effectively outside of computer education. Many teachers never use a computer for instructional purposes because they have no convenient access to the student labs where most of the computers are placed. Regarding whether or not equal opportunities exist between girls and boys for using computers, no information has previously existed for assessing the situation. The new survey results from Latvia's 1992 lEA Computers in Education study contain more detail on the subject and should shed light on the issue'. Integration As it was mentioned above, computers were first integrated into the practice of the middle schools in Latvia while starting schools and 9-year compulsory schools temporarily stood outside of the frame of implementation. In primary and compulsory education, the issue is now mainly one of whether technology will be accepted in the schools by Contact the Latvia lEA Center for information about available reports from this study. The mailing address is listed below.

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principals and teachers. Meanwhile vocational education in Latvia is in the process of great changes. Here, the main question is how many vocational schools will survive the changes to continue the process of integrating new information technology. Difficulties that interfere with the process of integrating computers into Latvia's education system come from 4 main sources and pose 4 major questions: 1.

How can comprehensive training be provided for teachers that enables them to make practical use of computers at the appropriate level?

2.

How can the process of acquiring the appropriate hardware and software for the schools be improved?

3.

How can the lack of encouragement and support from local government and school principals be overcome to gain their assistance in the solving of financial and other problems?

4.

And finally, how can the partially negative "school climate" and objections against the use of computers in education, especially in different subjects, be turned around?

Early analyses from Latvia's 1992 Computers in Education study suggest that this last factor at least may have declined in importance since the 198590 period of integration. But, according to the international results from the same study, it appears that the problems Latvia faces are very similar to the problems other countries report having encountered (Pelgrum, Janssen Reinen, & Plomp, 1993). The process of the integration of computers in the education system of Latvia will be of great importance in the near future due to the fact that during the last 2-3 years approximately 35-40 thousand working places were created for which computer knowledge and skills are required, and this development will continue to be important for the next 5-7 years. Creating an information network for the education system and facilitating the use of computers for school administration needs can be cited as additional goals. Authorities from the Ministry of Education have already focussed their attention on looking for ways to solve some of these problems.

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Current Trends in Computers in Education Curriculum It seems possible that the Ministry of Education will soon prescribe computer literacy as a necessary subject within compulsory basic education. An experimental curriculum and a textbook have been developed for a computer literacy subject at the 7th grade level. The integration of computer literacy into the curricula of the starting schools, however, is not considered to be of much value. At the middle school level, practically all schools are now teaching informatics as a course that can be chosen optionally by 10th grade students. The integration of computers into other subjects such as physics, mathematics, mother tongue, and foreign languages has made only weak progress, and what further activities might be developed to promote the process of integration are unclear. For the basic and special courses of informatics, some changes, such as items dealing with multimedia and hypertexts, could be introduced into the education standard if the availability of hardware and software and the willingness of informatics teachers are taken into account. Teacher Training One of the current trends in teacher training is an increase in the role of inservice training and retraining systems for the teachers of informatics. The development of appropriate training systems has grown more and more significant because efforts are now in progress to establish a process for certifying informatics teachers. At the University of Latvia, fundamentals of informatics are being implemented in all curricula. Now, practically all of the students of university have the opportunity to attend a basic course in informatics as well as special courses that deal with computer use in different subjects. Thus, all teachers instructed in university~not only teachers of informatics-will have been taught to use school computers in their specialty. This increase in the attention given to informatics at the university level can be seen as a stimulating factor for the entire process of integrating computers into Latvia's education system.

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Financing Financing for computers in education must be increased considerably. For one thing, BK-type computers still dominate in the middle schools, and it will require major investments to continue the purchases of IBM/PC-compatible computers necessary to renew the hardware resources in the schools. For another thing, more educational software, maintenance, and inservice training will be both necessary and expensive. Unfortunately, the economic situation in Latvia remains unstable. Practically no financial support will be available from the governments of the local municipalities for the items of interest. Budgetary funding was reduced remarkably in 1993 and will decrease again, though more slowly, in 1994. International experience shows that the successful development of computerization in education can only be carried out with massive support from government (OECD/CERI, 1991). Therefore, in Latvia, the renewal of school hardware and the implementation of related activities will surely be prolonged for 5 to 7 years~and raise additional difficulties as a result.

The Future Reforms When Latvia became independent, the situation in different branches of government and also in education began to change quickly and drastically. Latvia has been involved in an educational reform process to improve the quality of education since 1991. Many of these reform efforts have focussed upon specifying education standards and procedures for assessing student outcomes. Currently, school boards and the Ministry of Education are busy examining teacher qualifications (the certification process of teachers), school curricula, and school facilities. According to evaluations, the process of restructuring the school system will continue for the next few years. Not only will the present system change, but new types of schools such as colleges, gymnasiums, and private schools will be developed to join the existing set of schools. This whole process will have a great impact on the integration of new technology in the schools of Latvia.

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Research The current situation and trends indicate that Latvia's education system will change during the coming years in ways that it will fit the education systems of Europe. Education-related computer technology and applications will change considerably, too (Statistical Committee of the UNESCO Congress, 1992). We must thoughtfully attempt to improve our computerrelated policies in order to accommodate these changes appropriately. Certain research activities could be particularly fertile for this purpose, although the list below should not be taken to represent all the research topics that may be of interest. Evaluation of educational achievements. This kind of research activity is undoubtedly of great importance and interest, not only for computer education but for other school subjects as well. One good way to acquire evaluations of achievement is to participate in the studies sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (lEA) (for example, the Reading Literacy Study, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, and the Computers in Education study). The lEA studies should provide comprehensive data for assessing the outcomes of alternative policies and formulating recommendations. In regard to the computerization of education, results and analyses from the lEA Computers in Education study should provide more accurate definitions of national policies and strategies than have previously been available. Improving the quality of computer education. On this topic, two main directions of research activities could be mentioned. First, we must determine what kinds of different approaches in computer education already exist in Latvia. It seems that at least three (and sometimes a mix of them) are in active use: a "programming" approach, a "computer literacy" approach, and an approach based upon seeing the "computer as a tool." The effectiveness of each approach could be assessed after taking into account all other factors that affect the quality of subject outcomes. Second, we must work on the further development of the instruction process in computer education in preparation for the full-scale implementation of education standards and the elaboration of hardware, software, and methodology. Integration of computers in the education system. Completely integrating computers into education means implementing their use in the different branches of school life such as in the teaching of different subjects, for school administration needs, and for the kinds of individual use that students might pursue in school computer clubs or other settings. The adaptation and design

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of appropriate software will have influence in this area, but additional research activities must also be performed in order to achieve these goals.

References Ministry of Education. (1993a). Education system of Latvia. Ministry of Education. (1993b). Education system of Latvia. Statistical Data 1992/1993. Nordic Committee on Educational Software and Technology. (1991). Activities and results until 1991. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers. OECD/CERI. (1991). Informationstechnologien im bildungswesen: Auf dem weg zu einer besseren software. Frankfurt am Main; Bern; New York; Paris: Lang: Report of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Pelgrum, W.J., Janssen Reinen, I.A.M., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Schools, teachers, students and computers: A cross-national perspective. The Hague, the Netherlands: lEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). Pelgrum, W.J., & Plomp, Tj. (Eds.). (1993). The lEA study of computers in education: Implementation of an innovation in 21 education systems. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Statistic Committee of Latvia. (1994). Educational establishments of Latvia. Statistic Guide. Statistical Committee of UNESCO Congress. (1992). Education and informatics worldwide: The state of the art and beyond. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Andris Grinfelds and Andris Kangro, Department of Informatics and Technical Teaching Aids, University of Latvia, LV 1011, Riga, Latvia.

ALEXIS WERNE

THE LUXEMBOURG CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

The new information and communication technologies are fundamentally changing our society. These transformations affect not only the workplace but also social and cultural life. They constitute a challenge to education. The children of today have to be prepared for the society of information and communication of tomorrow. In the recent past, the Luxembourg educational system has taken up the challenge. Computing has been made a compulsory subject for pupils aged 15 and over in secondary and for pupils aged 12 and over in technical schools. In vocational training, special courses introduce pupils to the use of the computer in the professional world. Considerable efforts have also been made at all levels to integrate the computer as a learning tool throughout the curriculum. It should be noted that the Luxembourg educational system has the need to encompass more than one language with its curriculum. Furthermore, the system seems to be in the very early stages of a shift from more teacher-centered to more student-centered approaches. The progress of implementing computer use in Luxembourg's schools is discussed in this connection.

The Luxembourg Educational System The Structure of the System In Luxembourg, the state budget covers all the costs that result from administering and providing the equipment for the schools. Therefore, attendance at any state school is free. The Ministry of National Education is responsible for the whole of the Luxembourg national educational system, including the coordination of the syllabuses. For primary education, the syllabuses are described in documents referred to as the plan of studies. A special commission, nominated by the Minister of National Education, defines the general outlines and objectives of the plan of studies, and its curricular details are then worked out by special work groups. For secondary and technical education, the Ministry of Education bases its curriculum 339 T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 339-357 © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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decisions on the suggestions and advice of the National Commissions for Timetables and Syllabuses which is made up of practizing teachers with each school being represented by one delegate. There are two such commissions for each subject-matter taught, one for secondary and one for technical education. Training. To teach at the primary level, individuals must follow their secondary education with a teacher-training cycle of three years of higher studies at the Institute for Higher Pedagogical Studies and Research. Teachers of secondary and technical education are required to attend university for at least four years. They then must attend a cycle of three years of initial training that is theoretical in the first year and practical in the last two years and coordinated by the Department of Pedagogical Training of the University Centre Luxembourg. Throughout their professional careers, all teachers' adherence to the official methodology and programs and to the prescribed school books is inspected. In primary school, teachers are supervised by the inspectors of the Ministry of Education. Secondary and technical school teachers are supervised by the director of studies at each individual school. Research. The Ministry of National Education is also responsible for pedagogical research and innovation. While an interministerial Department for Research and Development administers all research on a national level, the Service for the Coordination of Pedagogical and Technological Innovation and Research (S.C.R.I.P.T.) of the Ministry of National Education coordinates the different programs for pedagogical innovation and research. One of the most important innovation programs coordinated by S.C.R.I.P.T. is the implementation of the new information technologies across the curriculum. In addition, S.C.R.I.P.T. coordinates inservice teacher training and the diffusion of information concerning all the programs it monitors. The Institute for Higher Educational Studies and Research, in conjunction with its main function as a teacher training center, is a common site for research programs. The Centre for Educational Technology functions at a national level to concentrate all logistic resources for both primary and secondary education. Moreover, a certain expertise in research and development, particularly in relation to the new information technologies, is being developed by the two public research centers known as C.R.P. - C.U. and C.R.P. - H.T.: (the "Centre de Recherche Public - Centre Universitaire" and the "Centre de Recherche Public - Henri Tudor").

THE LUXEMBOURG CONTEXT OF COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION

Age 21-22 20-21 19-20

Form Institute of Education and Social Studies

Higher Institute of Technology

Higher Institute for Pedagogical Studies and Research

University Higher Certificate of Vocational Centre Luxembourg Training

18-19

13-1

17-18

12-11

16-17 15-16

341

Technical Education

Secondary Education

ii-m 10-IV 9-V

14-15 13-14

8-VI

12-13

7-VII

11-12

6 5

10-11 09-10 08-09

Primary Education

4 3

07-08

2

06-07

1

05-06 04-05

Nursery School

Source: Ministry of National Education. Figure 1. The Luxembourg School System: General Overview.

Types of Schools Figure 1 shows the types of schools in Luxembourg's educational system and the ages at which students make the transition from one type of school to another. Table 1 depicts how the students and teachers are distributed across school types. In all types of schools, which are mixed, the structures and syllabuses are strictly identical for boys and girls. At the secondary and technical education level, however, as Table 1 shows, the number of male teachers nearly doubles the number of female teachers. The proportion of private schools in Luxembourg is relatively small. Pupils who attend them have to pass official State examinations if they want to be awarded an official diploma.

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Table 1. Distribution of Pupils and Teachers in Luxembourg's Primary and Secondary Schools (school year 1989-1990) Students Primary education Secondary and Technical education

Masculine Teachers

Feminine Teachers

23.664

908

862

19.225

1373

846

Source: Ministry of National Education.

Primary education comprises 2 years of nursery school, the first six years of primary studies, special classes, and classes for children with special needs. There are 433 primary schools throughout the country. Special education classes are housed within various schools. The objectives of nursery schools are to contribute to the growth of children's personalities through the development of basic knowledge and skills (particularly communication skills in Luxembourgish), to foster the children's awareness of their environment, and to prepare them for their integration into society. Primary education focusses on mathematics, elementary science, local studies, and languages (German, French, and Luxembourgish). While Luxembourgish is the native language, children learn to read and write in German, which gradually becomes the major language for teaching. French is learned as a foreign language from the second year onwards. Oral skills in the native language are taught; Luxembourgish is also used as a communication language in art and physical education. It should also be noted that there is a relatively high proportion of foreign pupils attending Luxembourgish schools at all levels, the largest group of these being made up of children of Portuguese origin. After the sixth year of primary education an entrance examination decides on access to post-primary education, which is made op of secondary and technical education. Post-primary education. As Figure 1 shows, two separate and distinct itineraries -secondary, technical, and complementary- compose post-primary education (form 7 and beyond), although passage from one to another is generally possible. Secondary education aims to prepare pupils for higher education. It takes place in eight schools ("lycees") throughout the country and lasts over a period of seven years. The three divisions of secondary education facilitate the gradual development of a special interest. In the lower division, pupils have the chance to get used to the new school system while teachers and parents get an idea of the pupils' chances of success. In the

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comprehensive cycle, pupils can choose between the literary itinerary or the scientific itinerary according to their abilities and wishes. Finally, in the cycle of specialization, pupils are expected to make a definitive choice among more specific fields such as languages, human and social sciences, plastic arts, music, mathematics and physics, natural sciences, economics, and so on. Technical education, in contrast, prepares students for a chosen profession or for higher education. It takes place in 14 schools ("lycees techniques") throughout the country and likewise lasts a period of six or seven years. The lower cycle of technical education deepens students' general knowledge and leads them to select the vocational training which best corresponds to their abilities and wishes. The middle and upper cycles consists of the itinerary of general technician, the technical itinerary, and the professional itinerary. Pupils who have failed the entrance examination for either secondary or technical education can nevertheless attend the preparatory classes of technical education for a period of three years. Preparatory classes aim to complete the basic knowledge of pupils, develop their social skills, and offer basic vocational training. According to the pupils' results, passage to technical education is possible after each year. Higher education. In Luxembourg, five different centers or institutes offer courses of higher education. Referring from left to right in Figure 1, their responsibilities are as follows. The Institute of Educational and Social Studies trains educators for children with special needs and other social professions. The Higher Institute of Technology offers courses in higher technical education and trains future technical executives in production, applied research, and the service industries. As mentioned before, the Institute for Higher Pedagogical Studies and Research provides initial and inservice training for nursery and primary school teachers. The University Centre Luxembourg offers only a first (and in some cases also a second) year of university education with its courses adapted to the syllabuses of foreign universities where the students are expected to continue their studies. Finally, the Higher Certificate of Vocational Training offers a high-level vocational training course. Not shown in the figure is the Service for Adult Education of the Ministry of National Education which organizes special courses to prepare adults for the various diplomas of secondary and technical education as well as intensive language courses offered through the Luxembourg Language Centre.

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Computers in Education General Objectives With regard to the new information and communication technologies, the Luxembourg educational system has given priority to two general objectives. The first of these is to offer all pupils basic training in computers so that they may become familiar with the most common computing tools and the practical uses of the computer in the professional world. Thus, a computer awareness course was introduced in 1986 and made obligatory for all pupils in their last year of compulsory schooling to ensure that all students will have contact with the new technologies before they leave school. The knowledge acquired in these courses can then be developed and deepened either in the upper levels of secondary education or vocational training or directly in professional life. To supplement the computer awareness courses, two additional courses were created to emphasize practical work with computers. For pupils aged 12 to 15 in the lower level of secondary and technical education, the practical work takes the form of interdisciplinary projects that link general computing tools such as word processors or databases directly to the learning of other subject matters. Since the school year 1990-91, this kind of course has been compulsory in technical education; in secondary education, it remains optional. Then, for pupils aged 16 to 17 in secondary education, various "prespecialization options" exist to help students make a final decision about their future studies, and a certain number of these optional courses make use of the computer as a learning tool. The second priority objective identified for implementing computer use in the educational system aims at enabling teachers to improve and diversity their current teaching methods with the use of computers. The efforts to integrate the computer across the teaching methods of the curriculum were undertaken more recently with the initiation of pilot projects in primary, secondary, and technical schools. The projects were designed to explore the educational potential of the new information technologies and to develop improved means for integrating them into the curriculum. Moreover, both the computer-awareness courses and the supplemental interdisciplinary courses proved to be good contexts for experimenting with more learning-by-doing approaches. Luxembourg is in a very early phase of shifting away from more teacher-centered approaches, wherein the teachers deliver abstract knowledge to the students (who assimilate it), and toward more student-centered approaches, based upon students' active, autonomous, and practical work.

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Therefore, it is hoped that the teachers' increasing awareness of the computer's potential for student-centered learning will act as a catalyst for further instituting computer use across the curriculum. Implementation Other efforts to ensure the fulfilment of these objectives have concentrated on developing the hardware that is available in the schools and the information that is available to the teachers. Both initial and inservice teacher training seek to make teachers aware of the new developments in computing and in their educational potential as well as to make them competent in the classroom use of the computer. Additional work has gone toward evaluating software to help teachers make appropriate classroom choices, toward developing pedagogical models which teachers can directly integrate into their courses, and toward developing an adequate communications infrastructure through which teachers may obtain new information and pool their experiences and expertise. Hardware development proceeded systematically in the schools. Nevertheless, the recent introduction of new courses which integrate the computer into the learning process, as well as the constantly increasing requirements of the teachers who want to use the computer as a learning tool in their classes, have multiplied the needs both in hardware and in appropriate software. For a small country like Luxembourg, with the rapid developments of the new information technologies and their applications in education, international cooperation, particularly among the European Communities, has proved to be of great value. Participation in the EURYCLEE network and in the EUROTECNET, PETRA, and COMETT programs has permitted Luxembourg to exchange important information with the other member states of the European Communities about the implementation of the new information technologies. The European programs have also allowed Luxembourg teachers to take part in international projects of pedagogical research, development, and evaluation; to exchange teachers with other countries; and to organize international seminars and conferences. Hardware, Software, and Organizational Infrastructure Since the 1980s, the supply of computer equipment in Luxembourg's schools has been systematically developed and completed. Nevertheless, the needs in both hardware and software continue to increase at a steady rate as new courses are introduced that use the computer as a learning tool and as teachers become more willing to use the computer as a teaching aid.

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Primary education. In primary schools, the local authorities are responsible for the purchase and maintenance of all hardware and software. Thus, the Ministry of Education is not in possession of exact figures to represent the computer inventory in the primary schools. However, it is estimated that about 75% of Luxembourg's primary schools have at present been equipped with at least one computer. This quantity of equipment is likely to increase considerably in the near future as teacher interest grows from the emphasis that contemporary inservice training places upon the educational potential of computers. Following from the principle of local purchasing decisions, the computer types and available software in the primary schools are quite diverse. Therefore, to increase the portability of computer programs and applications and to advise the local authorities on further purchases of computer equipment, the Ministry of National Education has recently issued certain recommendations. With regard to hardware, the recommendations specify that newly-purchased computers should ideally be able to run MS-Windows and should be laid out in such a way that they can be easily integrated into the teaching methods of primary schools. A decentralized layout of computers should always be preferred so that children can have access to a computer whenever needed and without having to leave their classrooms. Luxembourg's problems with software are particularly serious at the primary level. There is very little educational software development in Luxembourg and, consequently, extensive use is made of software that has been developed abroad. Although such software packages may be of great value, they can seldom be readily adapted to the specificity and methodologies of the Luxembourg educational system. The complicated linguistic situation in Luxembourg's schools poses additional difficulties. Therefore, with regard to software, the Ministry of National Education strongly recommends the use of generic or open-ended software (such as word processors or databases and LOGO as a programming language) and has developed guidelines for teachers about the possibilities for integrating such packages into their teaching practices. At the same time, teachers are free to use more specific software, particularly authoring packages which allow them to create their own exercises. Within the Institute for Higher Pedagogical Studies and Research, a work group was created to evaluate software packages that might be appropriate for primary school classes. The organizational infrastructure of computers in primary education operates at two levels. On the national level, a group of teachers was recruited and trained to offer technical advice concerning the purchase and

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maintenance of computer equipment. Additional work groups have also been created to develop pedagogical models addressing such topics as, for example, "writer's workshop", LOGO projects, the use of databases in the teaching of the humanities and natural sciences, the pedagogical applications of teleinformatics and simulations, and so on. On the local level, each primary school that possesses computing equipment is advised by a computer coordinator who is responsible for the administration of both the school's hardware and software and who can offer colleagues technical assistance and pedagogical advice. Secondary and technical education. The Ministry of National Education is in charge of the acquisition and maintenance of computer equipment in secondary and technical schools. Such centralization offers a broad perspective that facilitates the coordination and evaluation of the use of computers across the curriculum. It also has allowed the financial costs of having computers at school to be assessed over time. In the 1980s investments in hardware significantly increased every year to reach a peak of approximately 1.8 million U.S. dollars in 1990 which allowed every school to be equipped according to the requirements of the curriculum. Since that year, investments have slightly decreased; but if less hardware was purchased, more money went into software and maintenance (approximately 0.5 million U.S. dollars in 1993). With regard to hardware at this educational level, a "group of experts in charge of the elaboration of computing standards in education" decides on new acquisitions, standards to be observed, the layout of computers in schools, and maintenance and safety regulations. At present, each secondary and technical school has at least two computer rooms, each equipped with two dot-matrix or inkjet printers and twelve IBM-compatible computers with 80386 or 80486 processors, VGA color monitors, 4 to 6 Mb of RAM, and 2080 Mb hard disks. Computer equipment is generally upgraded every five years. Schools that offer specialized courses requiring special computing equipment have further appropriate hardware at their disposal. For example, schools offering higher level art education classes have Macintosh computers. A computer coordinator is in charge of administering the computer equipment in the secondary or technical schools. He or she is responsible for managing the computer rooms and can also offer pedagogical and technical advice to colleagues. Computers are generally brought together in special computer rooms, which is a layout very suitable for the computer awareness courses. However, additional computing equipment is presently being

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installed in a more decentralized way to suit the needs of some newly introduced courses. Physics and chemistry laboratories have been equipped with appropriate computers and interfaces, and each school has at its disposal one computer upgraded for multimedia applications. Portable units, when they could be acquired, have also added more flexibility to the use of the computer in the classroom. Software prescribed by the official syllabus of all secondary and technical schools, as well as the software to be used in innovative educational projects, is likewise provided by the Ministry of Education. Located in various schools, software libraries allow teachers to examine inspection copies of the various software packages available. A Centre for Technology in Education was recently created to make possible the centralization of those inspection copies as well as of all the documentation concerning the use of the computer in education. The access of all teachers of both primary and post-primary education to logistic resources will thus be facilitated. Generic software such as word processors, spreadsheets, and databases are generally preferred by teachers for their versatility. Unfortunately many educational software packages, available abroad and of considerable educational value, are difficult to fit into the specific requirements of education in Luxembourg and its complex linguistic system. Teleinformatics To develop the impact of teleinformatics in the educational system, Luxembourg's Ministry of National Education implemented the "Teleinformatics Network of National Education" in 1990. Known as RESTENA (Reseau Teleinformatique de T Education Nationale), it links all schools of secondary, technical, and higher education with each other and with all departments, services, and institutes that depend upon the Ministry of National Education. All secondary and technical schools have been equipped with suitable computers, modems, and telephone lines to allow access to RESTENA. Links with primary schools are under development. The architecture of the network will allow new gateways to other networks and services to be implemented progressively whenever the need arises. Gateways to IXI and INTERNET are already operational. Currently about 400 users (individuals and institutions) have registered with RESTENA. It offers facilities for electronic messaging, teleconferencing, and access to internal databases or to other teleinformatics networks. In specific terms, this means that school administrations can communicate with the Ministry of National Education and teachers can tap

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into the existing information infrastructure of timetables and syllabuses, teaching aids, calendars of meetings and inservice training, as well as into both internal and external databases. In addition, RESTENA can be used for teaching the practical applications of teleinformatics in computer awareness courses and for inter-school or international teleinformatics projects. The teachers of one technical school in Luxembourg also launched another educational teleinformatics network called WILYTEC that is geared specifically to the younger generation and gives access to other networks and databases which contain information directly relevant to the young.

The Computer and the Learning Process The policymakers of the Luxembourg educational system chose to make the computer one of the pillars of the learning process. As mentioned earlier, this involves seeing the computer in education from two different points of view. First, the computer must be seen as a learning object. Thus, all pupils in Luxembourg now attend computer awareness courses in at least their last year of compulsory school that introduce them to the most common computing tools. Then the knowledge and skills acquired there may be further developed during the ensuing years of secondary or technical education. Second, the computer may be seen as a learning tool. Thus, specially designed and obligatory courses at all levels of education teach pupils to use computing tools in an active way across the curriculum. At the same time, teachers who want to integrate the computer into their teaching methods are encouraged to make use of the logistic support and teacher training activities the Ministry of National Education makes available to them. The Computer as a Learning Object Basic training in the new information technologies. The computer awareness course introduced in 1986 for all pupils to take in their last year of compulsory school (i.e. the last year of the lower division of secondary and technical education; when pupils are generally 15 years old) has four main objectives: to transmit basic knowledge about computing; to train students in the practical use of the most common computing tools; to prepare students for vocational training; and to prepare them for the more detailed computing courses offered in the upper division of secondary education and in the middle and upper cycles of technical education. In the awareness courses, some applications such as word processing, Logo for programming, and databases are compulsory while others are optional, such as teleinformatics and other kinds of technical applications. The courses ^re given for one hour

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a week, and the Ministry of National Education has edited specially designed textbooks for them which are often accompanied by practical exercises on floppy disks. Additional computer awareness courses. Courses in the upper divisions of secondary and technical education develop the knowledge and skills acquired in the initiation courses and extend them to other software types. The overarching objective of these courses is to form intelligent computer users because the ability to solve more complex problems with computers will be useful to pupils who either take up a profession or who pursue further studies at the university level-two areas where computing tools are coming to play an increasingly important role. Furthermore, pupils who plan to continue with higher education courses will benefit from the introduction to formal thinking. Always of great importance in some fields such as mathematics and natural sciences, it is undoubtedly gaining in significance in linguistics and the humanities as well—again, two areas where computer use is on the increase. A related objective in the upper division computer awareness courses is to draw attention to the social and economic aspects of the computer in the modern world, avoiding a fatalistic view of technological progress but rather helping students develop an informed and critical approach to the achievements and possible future developments of modern technology. At present, during the first year of the comprehensive division of secondary education, pupils (aged 16) attend a one-hour-a-week obligatory computing course made up of theoretical lectures and practical project work and covering such topics as computers and their operating systems, the use of spreadsheets, development and querying of databases, and so on. In technical education, the computer courses given in the middle and upper cycles differ according to the sector and the level of training being pursued. For instance, in the administrative and commerce division, pupils are shown the various computing tools that can be used in management and commercial activities. In the general technical education division, computer courses introduce pupils to the problem-analysis methods of computing and to programming in Pascal. Then, in the various, specific sections of the technical training division, pupils learn about whichever computing tools are most commonly used in the profession they are training to enter. One of these, the computing section, is devoted to computer studies.

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The Computer as a Learning Tool Across the Curriculum In primary schools, efforts to integrate the use of the computer across the curriculum are based upon the findings from various pilot projects the Ministry of Education launched between 1986 and 1990. By experimenting with the computer as a working instrument in the classroom, the projects made it possible to identify areas in the general syllabus of primary education where integrating the computer can improve teaching methods and to develop pedagogical models that fully integrate the computer as a learning tool. The pilot projects proved that the computer can become a powerful educational tool which diversifies and vitalizes the learning process, provided its use is well mastered by teachers and it is fully integrated into a pedagogically sound method. Under these conditions, computers can foster creativity, cooperation, and group work, as well as exploratory and autonomous learning. To support the teaching of existing subject matters at present, the use of the new information technologies in primary education is not compulsory but strongly recommended. A number of activities are suggested. For example, writing activities with the computer can help children develop their writing skills and facilitate oral exchanges during group work. Querying or developing databases gives children the chance to learn information-retrieval skills and explore their surroundings. Projects developed with Logo as a programming language allow children to create micro worlds. Teleinformatics projects develop communication skills as well as foster international and inter-cultural relationships. Computer-assisted learning software can be used for remediation or for further development of already acquired knowledge and skills. The two new courses in secondary and technical education that emphasize the computer's use across the curriculum were introduced in the 1990-91 and the 1991-92 school years and complement the computer awareness courses in compulsory school. "Interdisciplinary Projects-Technological Education" is optional in the lower division of secondary education but compulsory in the lower cycle of technical education (pupils aged 13 to 15). Its purpose is to introduce pupils right from the beginning of their secondary and technical education to the practical applications of general computer programs and to establish a link between computer applications and the general subject matters of the curriculum. By actively using such computing tools as word processors, databases, spreadsheets, and desktop publishing programs for practical, interdisciplinary project work, pupils get the opportunity to develop their basic computing skills through hands-on experience. "Pre-specialization options" were introduced in the following year to the comprehensive cycle of

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upper secondary education to help students decide which specializations they will opt for during the last two years of their secondary education. The prespecialization options mainly consist of practical project work. The options which prescribe the use of the computer as a working and learning tool include the "mathematics and computing option", the "natural sciences and computing option", and the "economics and computing option". Apart from these obligatory courses, the number of projects individual schools have launched to integrate the new information technologies has been steadily increasing. At the same time, teachers have increasingly become aware of the computer's educational potential and increasingly choose to use the new information technologies to change, improve, and diversify their teaching methods-even in courses where their use is not compulsory.

Teacher Support To be implemented and supported, every educational innovation, and even more so the integration of the new information technologies across the curriculum, requires an adequate infrastructure for communication and training. Teachers not only need to be able to receive information and training on how to use the technology in their lessons, but they must also be able to take an active part in the discussion on the fundamental issues concerning educational innovation and reform in general. Information To pass the necessary information along to the teachers concerned, the Ministry of National Education launched an information campaign which, among others, particularly insists on the importance of the new information technologies. One of the aims of RESTENA, the teleinformatics network, is to facilitate the exchange of all kinds of information between teachers and all the departments of national education. RESTENA provides databases concerning syllabuses, innovation and research programs, available publications and educational materials, software evaluation, inservice training sessions, and so on. In addition, the Ministry of Education makes several publications available to teachers. At regular intervals, it publishes the Information Bulletin: New Technologies and Education and sends it free of charge to every teacher. This bulletin acts as an open forum for all teachers of primary, secondary, and

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technical education who wish to exchange information and discuss their ideas and experiences concerning the use of the computer at school. Another publication, the Evaluative Catalogue of Educational Software, is designed to attract teachers' attention to the educational potential of the computer and to assist them in their choices of appropriate software tools for their courses. The catalogue provides bibliographical information, describes the aims and contents of the listed software packages, and contains comments by teachers who have already used the programs in their lessons. A whole range of other publications dealing with more restricted topics can also be ordered free of charge from the Ministry of National Education. These publications take various forms from resource packs to dossiers, information brochures, catalogues, simplified manuals, didactic materials, or descriptions of learning sequences that fully integrate the computer as a tool or support. Initial Training and Inservice Training Primary education. For teachers in primary education, both initial and inservice training is organized by the Institute of Higher Pedagogical Studies and Research. During initial teacher training, 90 compulsory hours are dedicated to computing and computer-assisted learning. This course aims to give teachers sufficient knowledge to be able to use the computer as a tool and as a teaching resource in their lessons. Trainees are introduced to computers and their operating systems and develop basic skills in word processing, databases, and spreadsheets. In addition, teacher trainees may choose to take a supplementary, optional training program of 120 hours which aims at further development of their basic skills and introduces teachers to Logo as a programming language. The inservice training program for primary education is organized as "proficiency modules" from which teachers are free to choose the ones that interest them more particularly. The modules deal both with the technical and educational issues linked to the use of computers at school. Their main objective is to integrate the computer as a tool and as an educational resource across the curriculum and to show trainees how to make the best use of the educational potential of the new information technologies. Secondary and technical education. The initial training program for teachers of secondary and technical education is organized by the Department of Pedagogical Training of the University Centre Luxembourg. During the first year of their training young teachers attend a compulsory initiation course which consists of a general introduction to computers as tools for both teachers and pupils, a presentation of the pedagogical issues linked to the use

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of computers at school, an introduction to computer-assisted learning combined with a presentation of specific educational software packages that teachers might find useful for their particular courses, and an initiation into the basic functions of general purpose software. Increasingly, it has been noted that trainees are choosing to write their pedagogical reports on subjects related to the use of the computer across the curriculum. No precise legal framework exists yet for inservice teacher training at the level of secondary and technical education. Thus, attendance at inservice training activities is not compulsory, but the teachers who elect to participate in seminars or workshops outside of their normal working hours do receive financial compensation. The available inservice program, coordinated by S.C.R.I.P.T. (Service for the Coordination of Pedagogical Innovation and Research), concentrates especially on topics dealing with the integration of the new information technologies across the curriculum. The program works according to the "cascade model" wherein a limited number of teachers attend an intensive training program which may last several months or even a year and is often organized in cooperation with a foreign institute or university. The knowledge acquired there is then transmitted to colleagues, either during a complete cycle of training that extends over a year and gives trainees a general overview of the computer's educational potential for particular subject matters or during isolated, shorter seminars that address more specific topics.

Assessment and Perspectives Luxembourg's objectives for computers in education have not yet been entirely met. The first objective, to offer all pupils basic training in the new information technologies, has largely been achieved via the institution of the computer awareness courses. However, great care must be taken in the future to adapt these courses regularly to keep up with the rapid developments of the computing world. Moreover, efforts must be continued to sensitize girls to computers with the aim of increasing the number of female students attending vocational training courses in the area of information technologies. The second objective, to integrate the use of the computer across the curriculum, has only had limited success. The introduction of compulsory courses that integrate the computer as a learning tool, however, represents considerable progress in this direction. Moreover, a spirit of innovation and experimentation with the new educational tools is shared by an increasing number of teachers. This trend must be supported and generalized because it alone can lead to the kind of technical know-how and pedagogical skills

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which are often missing but which cannot be developed by teacher training alone. The extent to which computing has come to play such an important role in the Luxembourg educational system is mainly due to four factors. First, teachers and teacher-trainers were dedicated enough to contribute greatly to making the technological and pedagogical innovation possible. Second, the Ministry of Education made concerted efforts to create the information and training infrastructure that would be indispensable for such innovation. Finally, the investments made in hardware and software over the last few years and the cooperation Luxembourg received on the European and international levels have been of utmost importance. Nevertheless, in Luxembourg as in many other countries, pedagogy itself (i.e., teaching methods and the ways learning is organized) has not yet been revolutionized by computing. Perhaps the major reasons for this are that educational systems are very deeply anchored in the cultural traditions of their countries, that learning processes are very complex, and that teaching methods can only adapt very slowly to the changes in the world outside of school. Luxembourg's perspectives for the future can be described by reviewing the Ministry of National Education's current priorities regarding computer use in education. Among the most important are extending the existing supply of computing equipment and developing and diversifying the teacher training programs. Confronted by the rapid technological progress in computing, the Ministry of National Education will have to modernize the existing equipment; continue to equip science labs with computers, interfaces, and peripherals; and continue to acquire the appropriate hardware to run multimedia applications. Eventually, primary schools need to be more systematically equipped in hardware than they are at present. And, because it is in the professional world that the new information technologies have so far had the greatest impact and where they developed most rapidly, care must be taken regularly to adapt vocational training to the new developments in the working world. Ways must also be found to integrate the new developments in computers, particularly with multimedia systems, so that advantage can be taken of their educational potential. The gateways to external networks and the information databases offered by RESTENA must likewise be developed and adapted to the needs of pupils and teachers. Even if some school classes in Luxembourg have already communicated electronically with other classes both here and abroad, further inter-cultural relationships will still need to be established.

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Eventually, the potential of teleinformatics for open and distance learning will have to be explored. Research projects concerning, for example, the integration of computer simulations at all educational levels, the use of multimedia tools in the humanities, and the study of oral interaction around the computer have already been launched. Ways must be found to apply the results of such research throughout the educational system. At the same time, both initial and inservice teacher training programs must offer an ever widening range of seminars and workshops that emphasize, for one thing, the pedagogical issues related to the use of computers across the curriculum. The needs for both a reform of initial teacher training and for a legal framework for inservice teacher training are strongly felt.

Education and the Society of Information and Communication The rapid developments of technology and of modern society are in themselves great challenges for education. One of the most important and urgent questions we must answer today is how to organize the education of the future so that the inexorably developing "society of information" becomes, for everybody, a society of communication and knowledge. In this context, two important aspects of education should be stressed. Both communication and active learning are essential elements of what general culture should be. And, as the policymakers of the Luxembourg educational system are coming to see, they must be deemed absolute priorities. First of all, too little attention is currendy given to the development of pupils' communicative competence. The learning process should be structured around the acquisition of communicative skills in speaking, reading, and writing. Moreover, and of the greatest importance for a small country like Luxembourg, this should be accomplished in more than one language. Secondly, it should not be forgotten that, in a constantly changing and rapidly progressing world, education can no longer only mean passing on ready-made knowledge to the younger generations. Teachers should also help their pupils acquire active learning strategies so that the world may become for them an autonomous source of information and knowledge. How to use the new information technologies for practical and meaningful purposes is another skill to be included in what general education will mean in tomorrow's world. Toward these ends, awareness and mastery of the media, both spoken and written, must be envisioned to include mastery of the new

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information technologies~the new medium of tomorrow's knowledge--, and all must become essential ingredients of education. The use of the new information technologies will continue to gain in importance in the Luxembourg educational system. Because the computer allows a pedagogy of communication and exploration, its use across the curriculum facilitates the development of students' productive skills, their communicative competence, and their critical awareness of the role of technology in the modern world. Computing tools such as word processors, databases, drawing programs, and desktop publishing software are essential ingredients of the modern media of information and communication. By using these tools during practical and meaningful project work, students will become aware of the advantages and drawbacks of modern technology and begin to understand the multiple implications of technological innovation such as its social, economic, moral, cultural, and artistic implications. Furthermore, the interactivity of the new information technologies helps to make them flexible educational tools with the potential to diversify and improve learning. Teachers need to take advantage of approaches that are likely to make learning active and stimulating and discard approaches that limit pupils' autonomy by imposing inflexible structures. To achieve these goals, the Luxembourg educational system will have to continue to adapt curricula and teaching methods so that every pupil is given the opportunity to acquire strategies for autonomous learning, to develop creativity, to practice problem-solving and teamwork skills, to take the initiative and to accept responsibilities, and to be open-minded and critical. Indeed, it very much looks as if educating future generations in harmony with technological progress and constant social change is only possible in this way.

Alexis Werne is Professeur, charge de mission at S.C.R.I.P.T. ('Service de la Coordination de la Recherche et de 1'Innovation Pedagogiques et Technologiques'~the Service for the Coordination of Pedagogical and Technological Innovation and Research) of the Ministere de I'Education Nationale.

TJEERD PLOMP, ERNA SCHOLTES, AND ALFONS TEN BRUMMELHUIS

POLICIES ON COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS'

By constitution, all schools in the Dutch education system (public and private) are funded by the Government provided that they meet the standards of quality set by the Ministry of Education and Sciences. Within the framework of these standards, schools are free to organize their teaching and learning processes. The introduction of new technologies in education began in 1982 with stimulation policies that launched several promotional programs over four time periods until 1992. Since 1993, the Dutch government has considered new technologies a regular part of educational practice.

Structure and Nature of the Dutch Educational System Freedom of Education The Dutch Constitution, dating from 1848, establishes a principle of educational freedom in the Netherlands. Freedom of education means that groups of private individuals have the right to establish schools on the basis of their own particular philosophy of life or their own views of society and education and that these schools will be funded equally by government. This produces a wide variety of types of schools which fall into two main categories. Publicly-run schools are controlled by the municipalities. Privately-run institutions fall into three groups, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and non-denominational private schools, which are not based on a religious belief but do have a private school board. In 1992, a total of around 6,300 school boards, existed in the Netherlands, and nearly two-thirds of them belonged to private schools (Krins, Plomp, & Scholtes, 1992). All schools qualify for government subsidy provided that they meet the criteria for quality laid down in various statutes and regulations and provided that they are likely to meet the minimum standard for student numbers. The principle of financial equality between publicly-run and privately-run ^

This article draws heavily from a summary report to the European Community by Krins, Plomp, and Scholtes (1992). 359

T. Plomp et at. (eds.), Cross National Policies and Practices on Computers in Education, 359-380. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

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education has been established since 1921. This means that government expenditures for publicly-run education have to parallel the expenditures made on privately-run education. Until the age of 16 years, children have to attend an educational institution that meets statutory requirements and measures up to the standards of quality set by the Ministry of Education and Science. These standards define the subjects or areas of the curriculum that are compulsory under statute for the various types of schools and specify examination requirements or attainment targets. Regulations regarding subject combinations, the time-tabling of lessons, and examination syllabi guarantee a degree of standardization in the intake and output of the different schools. Within the framework of these standards, schools may choose from a variety of methods to organize the teaching and learning processes they will use. Regulation of Education The central government controls the education system by means of legislation and regulation while the administration and management of Dutch schools are accomplished on a decentralized, municipal basis. Major central government responsibilities with regard to educational policy include ensuring that adequate facilities for education are properly spread around the country, providing funding and supervision, controlling the procedures and quality of examinations, and promoting innovations. The provinces play only a modest role. Their duties are mainly supervisory (to ensure that sufficient public provision of education is available at the primary and secondary levels) and judicial (to settle appeals brought against decisions made by municipal authorities). The municipalities are the de facto authorities with regard to managing publicly-run education. They are also charged with certain executive duties, such as supervising school compliance with the Compulsory Education Act and reimbursing the costs of school facilities, for which they in turn receive reimbursement from the central government. Municipalities reimburse the expenses of privately-run schools on the same basis as they reimburse publicly-run schools. Funding Education is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. Excluding student grants and loans, the 1992 budget totaled 27 billion guilders (14.2 billion in U.S. dollars). This amount is equivalent to 5.8% of the net national income and accounted for approximately 13% of the total government expenditures. Money for the education budget comes from tax revenue and, to

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a limited extent, from the tuition fees charged by schools, evening-class institutions, universities, and polytechnics. Students beyond the age of compulsory education (above 16 years) are asked to contribute to the cost of tuition but student financing schemes exist to ensure that these contribution requirements do not limit access to education. The government distributes resources throughout the education system according to either a declaration-based model of funding or a norm-based system of funding. In the declaration-based model, schools declare their expenses (in accordance with various rules) and then actual costs are reimbursed on the basis of the declarations. In the norm-based system, schools receive funding according to a standard limit, so government control over the legitimacy of expenditures is less detailed and the schools have greater freedom to spend their money as they see fit. Recently, the government has gone over to the norm-based system for an increasing number of school sectors. Already established within higher education and senior secondary vocational education, the norm-based system is also expected to be applied to general secondary and primary schools over the course of the next few years. Levels of Policy Decision-Making External bodies advise the Minister of Education and Science with regard to policy-making. One permanent advisory body, the Education Council, was established by statute in 1919. It has 80 members and can advise the Minister at his request or on its own initiative. The Council takes a supervisory role in maintaining financial equality between the publicly-run and privately-run institutions, coordinating educational policy and regulations, and preserving the educational freedom that schools have to organize their teaching within the standards set by the government. For new policy proposals, the Minister of Education and Science consults with various bodies composed of representatives of the schools and institutions, staff, parents, and students. In consultation, these bodies are represented by four umbrella organizations, one for publicly-run education and one for each of the three ideological categories of privately-run education (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and non-denominational). Such consultations precede any discussions of policy proposals that take place in parliament. Parliament then ratifies the main lines of approved policy proposals, by statute or otherwise.

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As a consequence of its freedom of education principle, the Netherlands has no national curriculum. The substance of education is regulated at the national level only through the specification of examination requirements and attainment targets. Based upon these, commercial educational publishers develop textbooks and compile sets of teaching and learning materials called "methods". The individual schools or teachers then decide which of these methods to use, always with the opportunity to choose among the products of several publishers. The government subsidizes the design of new curricula via development projects carried out by the National Institute for Curriculum Development or by one of three national educational support centers (one Roman Catholic, one Protestant, and one non-denominational). Since no curricula can be prescribed by government, the products of these government-subsidized endeavors can only serve as than examples. However, development projects of this kind prompt educational publishers to modify their products. Variation by Type of School Table 1 lists the different types of schools in the Dutch educational system while Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the system. A descriptions of each educational sector follows below.

Table 1. Number of Students and Teachers (in Thousands) In Dutch Educational System, 1990-1991 Teachers Type of Education Primary education Special education General secondary Mbo and adult education Higher vocational University education

Students

full-time

full-time

71,8 17,9 69,7 31,7 —'^ —"*

1,441 109 897^ 432 183 160^

part-time

119^ 157^ 50

Notes: ^ = 75% of these are enrolled in vwo/have/mavo (general secondary). ^ = All part-time students are enrolled in general secondary (vwo/havo/mavo). ^ = All part-time students are in vocational secondary (mbo). ^ = data not available. ^ = This number includes part-time enrollees. Source: Education budget 1992, Key educational statistics.

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Primary education. The Primary Education Act took effect in 1985 and introduced a new-style primary school that integrated the old-style nursery and elementary schools. The new-style primary education offers children between 4 and 12 years of age an uninterrupted period of schooling geared to the progress and development of the individual child. Schools providing special education exist for children with handicaps or with learning or developmental difficulties who are unable to attend mainstream schools. postgraduate and postgraduate continuing education

higher vocational education (hbo)

v\ pre-university education (vwo)

M

senior secondary vocational education (MBO) 3/4 years

senior general secondary j ^ junior general secondaiy education (havo) L/ education (mavo) 4 years

M transition class

transition class

transition class

apprenticeship (raining 2/3 years

short mbo courses (kmbo) 2/3 years

junior secondary vocational education (vbo)|

transition class —12 —12

primaiy education 8 years

Source: Netherlands, Ministry of Education and Science. Figure 1. The Dutch Education System Today.

General secondary education. Within secondary education, a distinction is drawn between general and vocational education. The Secondary Education Act of 1968 sought to improve coordination between the different types of secondary schools, provide opportunities for horizontal and vertical transfers between the different types of schools, and offer a combined first year called the transition class. The intent of the transition class is to bridge the break (or transition) between elementary and secondary schooling and between the different kinds of schools within secondary education. Two kinds of transition class eventually emerged: one for general secondary education and one for vocational education. Since 1968, debate on the structure of secondary education has continued. The most recent proposal, a new plan for Basic Education, was implemented

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in August 1993. Embracing the first three years of secondary education, it provides a basic comprehensive curriculum for all pupils aged between 12 and 15. The objectives of the new Basic Education are to allow the postponement of selection decisions, to encourage personal development, and to offer a more broadly-based education. The Basic Education Bill assumes that these objectives can be achieved without any statutory change in the existing education structure. Therefore, the different types of secondary schools (vbo, mavo, havo, and vwo) will continue to exist and, following the period of Basic Education, pupils will be able to opt to complete their secondary education at any of these four types of schools. Vocational education. The four boxes in the upper right corner of Figure 1 depict the alternate paths available for vocational education in the Dutch school system. Preparatory secondary vocational education (vbo) provides general pre-vocational education and is not intended as terminal education. Its first three years are intended primarily for basic education while the fourth year is more vocationally-oriented. Schools in this group offer courses in technical subjects, commercial fields, and agriculture as well as in the personal and social services and health care. Senior secondary vocational education (mbo) is entirely vocationally-oriented. In a period of three to four years, it trains students for middle management jobs in industry, the service sector, health care, and government. Short senior secondary vocational courses (kmbo) provide an alternative to pupils who are leaving either general or vocational schooling at the junior secondary level without having found their way into the vocational courses at the mainstream senior secondary level. These short courses, which last two to three years on a full-time basis, lead to occupational qualifications. Finally, the apprenticeship system offers a form of vocational training that combines one or two days of classroom education a week with on-the-job training for the remainder of the week. Trainees in the apprenticeship system are paid for their on-the-job time. Some Facts and Figures Table 2 indicates the overall size of the Dutch educational system. Over the last few years, growth in special education has halted while the number of pupils in primary education has slightly increased. The number of students in higher education is also increasing. In general, as compared with a decade ago, young people are staying on longer at school before entering the labor market.

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Table 2. Number of Schools and School Size in 1991

No. of Schools Primary education Special education General secondary Junior secondary vocational Junior-senior secondary vocational (combined) Senior secondary vocational Higher vocational University education

8,422 1,004 1,228 420 39 146 73 12

Average No. of Pupils 170109 588 388 1,962 1,395 2,507 13,879

Source: Education budget 1992, Key educational statistics.

In addition to expansion in the size of the system, there is a continuing expansion in the scale of educational establishments as Table 2 indicates. It began with higher vocational education in 1987, continued with senior secondary vocational education in 1990, and is now occurring within all of secondary education. Primary education is likely to experience the same trend. This expansion in scale was prompted by government measures that defined minimum school sizes and provided extra financial considerations for bigger schools. Expansion is motivated by the goal of greater efficiency.

Computer-Related Policies Beginning in 1982, the Dutch government applied a series of stimulation policies to promote the use of new technologies in education. The stimulation took place via a group of promotion programs that can most easily be described in terms of four separate time periods. Figure 2 summarizes the goals, budget, and scope of each of these promotion programs in turn. Only a limited number of issues have been settled by statute-namely that new technologies should be used in physics in upper secondary school, in informatics in vocational administrative (upper secondary) schools, and in informatics and computer literacy (as a small course of 20 lesson periods) in lower secondary education.

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