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.

Programming education in Lithuania started with the Pascal-inspired Young Programmers’ School by Correspondence, founded in 1981, which had a great influence on the Lithuanian programming elite. For this purpose, a compiler for a subset of Pascal was developed for students taking their first steps towards programming, or more precisely, algorithmic thinking.

Many innovations were developed and brought into practice. The ones that have proved their worth and have not lost their relevance are the subject of this article. These include assessing program text readability, cultivating programming style, program reading tasks, creative thinking tasks, problem-solving approaches, detailed compiler error messages, automatic error fixing, and compiler advice to novice programmers. While some concepts became obsolete with technological advancements, others remain relevant, directly or as inspiration for new ideas, forming the basis of this study.