Informatics Teachers Training Standards, Programs and Curricula in Ukraine

1. Informatics Teachers Training Standards, Programs and Curricula in Ukraine Oleg Spirin Department of Information Technology Zhytomyr Ivan Franko University, Ukraine Oleg.Spirin@zu.edu.ua

2. Informatics Teachers Training Standards, Programs and Curricula • Part One. Current Approaches to Training of Informatics Teachers presents an analysis of the educational standards, training programs and curricula currently used in training of informatics teachers in Ukraine • Part Two. Transfer to Credit-Modular System of Training Informatics Teachers features the prospects of introduction of the national credit-modular system in universities on the basis of the European Credit Transfer System, the possibilities of adaptation of the current training programs and curricula for a two-level system of academic degrees

3. Current Educational Standards and Training Programs Two fields of training: • “applied mathematics” Out of four specialities only the speciality “informatics” gives graduates the qualification of an informatics teacher • “pedagogical education” Training in the speciality “pedagogy and methods of secondary education; informatics” is not possible at present, due to the absence of corresponding public standards. Students have to choose a speciality comprising at least two disciplines, with informatics being a minor one. It can be for instance “pedagogy and methods of secondary education; mathematics and basics of informatics”

4. Current Educational Standards and Training Programs Two educational levels: • “basic higher education” Bachelor’s degree, 4 years. Qualification of a secondary school teacher only in the major speciality – normally not in informatics • “complete higher education” Either Specialist’s or Master’s degree, 1 year. In case of two specialities: Specialist’s degree is awarded in both specialities, the Master’s degree is awarded only in the major speciality

5. Current Educational Standards and Training Programs Three options of further training: • Bachelor-Specialist 4+1 years of study, free complete higher education and the right to teach two subjects at school, but the student does not get the Master’s degree • Bachelor-Master 4+1years of study, free complete higher education, the right to teach only one subject at school or university • Bachelor-Specialist-Master 4+1+1 years of study, 5 years of free training, 1 fee-paying year, the right to teach two subjects at school or one major subject at a university

6. Current Educational Standards and Training Programs Existence of several models of training informatics teachers Educational standards for training school teachers today have been officially approved only for the Bachelor’s degree

7. Current Educational Standards and Training Programs The educational standards comprise: • qualification description • training program Is the basis on which each university develops their own five-year course curricula for each speciality. These curricula are then approved by the Ministry and are mandatory for the accreditation of the corresponding specialities • university curriculum The curriculum specifies the list of disciplines, the amount of hours per each discipline, the sequence of disciplines, forms of classes and their number, the course schedule, forms of final control and the amount of hours assigned for students’ self-study.

8. Program for the Bachelor’s degree in informatics (field of training “applied mathematics”) Table 1. Training program content distribution and minimum hours/credits in units of training 1 credit = 54 hrs, 1 academic hr comprising 40 or 45 astronomical min

9. Program for the Bachelor’s degree in informatics • Unit 1 “Humanities and social-economic disciplines” history of Ukraine, Ukrainian language, culture studies, economics, philosophy, religion study, sociology, political science, psychology, jurisprudence, fundamentals of ecology, safety of human activities, ethics and aesthetics, foreign language, physical training • Unit 2 “Sciences” mathematical analysis, algebra and geometry, discrete mathematics, differential equations, operations research, probability theory and mathematical statistics, theory of algorithms and mathematical logic • Unit 3 “Professional training” programming, functional analysis, simulation of economic, ecological and social processes, management theory, systems and methods of decision-making • Unit 4 “Practical training” numerical methods, databases and information systems, basics of Internet, computer architecture, computer nets, data analysis

10. Program for the Bachelor’s degree in informatics Disciplines selected by the university: • applied mathematics random processes, analysis of time series, general theory of systems, mathematical models of economic, ecological and social systems, mathematical economics, operations research, qualitative theory of differential equations, equations in mathematical physics, numerical methods in mathematical physics, cryptology, algorithm theory, mathematical logic • computer disciplines languages of computer simulation and imitation, computer graphics, multimedia technology, computer-aided control systems, intelligence systems, AI languages, distributed databases, programming theory, software engineering, information security, compilation theory

11. Curricula: Peculiarities of Disciplines Distribution about 80% of disciplines comprise 0.5-2 credits, among them more than 50% 1 credit or less The number of disciplines per one semester: 13 disciplines on average Fig 1. Distribution of disciplines according to the number of credits in the curricula (Faculty of physics and mathematics)

12. Transfer to Credit-Modular System of Training Informatics Teachers Urgent tasks: • Development of the national ECTS-based credit-modular system • Introduction of a Two-Level System of Academic Degrees • Curricula Modernization

13. Transfer to Credit-Modular System of Training Informatics Teachers Development of the national ECTS-based credit-modular system • ECTS provides for students’ mobility but does not pay proper attention to the qualitative parameter, i.e. the role of the discipline in the whole context of the specialist’s training • We believe that developers of Ukrainian credit-modular system should make use of the benefits of accumulation systems (USCS, CATS) which have a more universal character and better meet challenges of continuous (life-long) education and upgrading. the credit- a relative unit of measuring a student’s progress (level of knowledge and skills) shown within one module (a course fragment)

14. Transfer to Credit-Modular System of Training Informatics Teachers Introduction of a Two-Level System of Academic Degrees • Bachelor of Education degree: two-speciality graduates - the right to teach only the major discipline, Master of Education – the right to teach in both specialities? • fundamental training for speciality “informatics”, fields of training: “education” ≈ “applied mathematics” Joint specialities: fundamental training is completed in the first speciality on the Bachelor’s level and in the second speciality on the Master’s level?

15. Transfer to Credit-Modular System of Training Informatics Teachers Curricula Modernization • the average content of a discipline should increase up to 3–6 credits through integration of related disciplines, • final transfer from 54-hour credit to 36-hour credit, with 60 ECTS credits per one year of study • a broader application of modular technology in current and final testing of students’ progress • provision of monitoring, updating of program and curricula content in view of the present-day and future vocational needs of the labour market.

16. Major conclusion While developing national academic standards, Ukrainian universities need the international experience in training of informatics teachers and regular professional contacts.

17. Proposals • Is it feasible to have international minimum requirements to training of informatics teachers? They may be similar toECDLfor secondary schools or be developed according to the principles of “Computing Curricula 2005. Association for Computing Machinery and Computer Society of IEEE” • International association of informatics teachers? Are there international organizations that could develop such standards? Is there a need to set up an International association of informatics teachers? I think our conference which has a wide professional representation can initiate such organization. Creation of such association will make it possible to continue the long-term initiative launched by Prof. Mittermeir and his colleagues and make conferences on the problems of teaching informatics at secondary schools a regular event.

18. Sincere thanks to the Conference Organization Committee, Professors Valentina Dagiene and Roland Mittermeir and all who made this conference a reality!

19. Thank you! Oleg.Spirin@zu.edu.ua