Informatics in Education

The situation improved significantly after the first informatics curriculum was approved for schools by the Ministry of National Education (MEN) in 1985, in response to the increasing number of microcomputers in schools and students’ interest in programming. As a confirmation of the conclusions drawn from the discussion in the ABACUS magazine (1984) on “Which is the best programming language for a first course in computer science,” Pascal very quickly became the basic programming language in Polish schools as a tool for practicing algorithmics. The first informatics textbook was published in 1988 and in it, after a short Logo course, Pascal took the main place as a language for developing solutions to algorithmic problems in the form of computer programs.

In the following years, many teaching aids were developed for programming education in schools, as well as other aids, e.g., an authoring system, programmed in Pascal. Pascal was the primary programming language in informatics education until the end of the first decade of the 21st century, subsequently replaced by Python.

It is interesting that Polish winners of national and international Olympiads in Informatics for many years used Pascal, demonstrating the enormous professional values of this language.

In this article we present in detail, among others things: the role and influence of Pascal on the development and level of informatics education in schools in Poland, as well as other scientific activities and initiatives supported by this language. Many students educated in this technical and mental environment found their place in professional development teams in the best computer and technology corporations, and evidently most of them joined the national working force.

The flip side of these requirements of an educational programming language is its power to shape thought patterns, mental models, and best practices of the students, and thus of their future. Moreover, the aspect of simplicity may have the power to decide whether programming will become democraticed or remain the realm of a few highly paid specialists.

From the many programming languages that have been used in programming education, few stand out for being as popular and widely used as Pascal and Python. Decades apart, both have been designed with simplicity and relevance in mind, and yet it seems they could not differ more in so many design choices, most notably typing.

In this article we therefore consider the similarities and differences between Pascal and Python with emphasis on an educational perspective. We identify core features that might explain their suitability for education, compare their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss to what extent the premises behind their design still apply to the future of programming education.

The goal of this paper is to analyse and discuss the relationship between DC and CT, and to help educators as well as educational policy makers to make informed decisions about how CT and DC can be included in their local institutions. We begin by defining DC and CT and then discuss the current state of both phenomena in education in multiple countries in Europe. By analysing official documents, we try to find the underlying commonness in both DC and CT, and discover all possible connections between them. Possible interconnections between the component groups of approaches are presented in Fig.