Anglia Ruskin Research Online (ARRO)
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Bringing computer science back into schools: lessons from the UK

conference contribution
posted on 2023-07-26, 13:06 authored by Neil Brown, Michael Kölling, Tom Crick, Simon Peyton Jones, Simon Humphreys, Sue Sentance
Computer science in UK schools is a subject in decline: the ratio of Computing to Maths A-Level students (i.e. ages 16– 18) has fallen from 1:2 in 2003 to 1:20 in 2011 and in 2012. In 2011 and again in 2012, the ratio for female students was 1:100, with less than 300 female students taking Computing A-Level in the whole of the UK each year. Similar problems have been observed in the USA and other countries, despite the increased need for computer science skills caused by IT growth in industry and society. In the UK, the Computing At School (CAS) group was formed to try to improve the state of computer science in schools. Using a combination of grassroots teacher activities and policy lobbying at a na- tional level, CAS has been able to rapidly gain traction in the fight for computer science in schools. We examine the reasons for this success, the challenges and dangers that lie ahead, and suggest how the experience of CAS in the UK can benefit other similar organisations, such as the CSTA in the USA.

History

Page range

269-274

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

Place of publication

New York, NY

ISBN

9781450318686

Conference proceeding

SIGCSE '13, Proceedings of the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Name of event

44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Location

New York, NY

Event start date

2013-03-06

Event finish date

2013-03-09

Language

  • other

Legacy posted date

2013-05-28

Legacy Faculty/School/Department

ARCHIVED Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education (until September 2018)

Usage metrics

    ARU Outputs

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC