Good (and bad) reasons to teach all students computer science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Recently everyone seems to be arguing that all students should learn computer science and/or learn to program. I agree. I see teaching all students computer science to be essential to counteracting our history and present state of differential access by race, class, and gender to computer science learning and computing-related jobs. However, teaching computer science is not a silver bullet or panacea. The content, assumptions, and implications of our arguments for teaching computer science matter. Some of the common arguments for why all students need to learn computer science are false; some do more to exclude than to expand participation in computing. This chapter seeks to deconstruct the many flawed reasons to teach all students computer science to help identify and amplify the good reasons.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationNew Directions for Computing Education
Subtitle of host publicationEmbedding Computing Across Disciplines
PublisherSpringer
Pages15-34
Number of pages20
ISBN (Electronic)9783319542263
ISBN (Print)9783319542256
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 17 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Computational thinking
  • Computer science
  • CS4All
  • Education
  • Equity
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Programming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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