Informatics Education: Current State and Perspectives of Development Within the System of Field Didactics in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract This study offers an overview of the current state in the field of informatics education in the Czech Republic. The new publication of a monograph focusing on field didactics showed that a complex analysis of the current state and future perspectives of developments in informatics education that has not yet been addressed is needed. This paper presents an overview of development in the discipline from the 1960s, defines the main goals of informatics education in the Czech Republic, namely the contents and methods of ICT and computer science education, the need to revise the content areas in official pedagogical documents, teacher education including training of primary teachers and methodology of research in the field of informatics education. The authors of the paper analyse current trends that have impact on informatics education and also refer to the dynamics of computer science education, gradual shift of computer science to lower school levels and introduction of new computer science topics into the area of information and communication technologies. In the conclusion the authors formulate the current problems that informatics education will have to tackle and indicate the possible dangers and perspectives of its future developments. In this article, we distinguish between informatics education as a school subject education and computer science education and ICT education which we understand as parts of this school subject in this context.