Resurrection of School

Informatics in Estonia:
impact to Teacher Education
Mart Laanpere
professor of mathematics & computing education
Tallinn University
How school subjects arise and fade
• Ivor Goodson: 'Becoming a School Subject', a story of geography
• Bernstein: selecting and classifying educational knowledge reflects both
the distribution of power and the principles of social control
• Young: school subjects reflect assumptions that some kinds and areas of
knowledge are much more 'worthwhile' than others
• The story of school informatics in Estonia:
• Introduced in the whole Soviet Union in 1985 as theoretical programming course
• Morphed into 'basic ICT skills course' in 1990ties, coding disappeared
• Disappeared from the national curriculum in 2001 (unlike in Latvia & Lithuania)
• Was re-introduced as a marginal elective subject in 2011 (digital skills focus)
• Expanded and radically changed in 2023 (computational & design thinking), new
OER e-textbooks for grades 1-11
Coding as the second literacy in Soviet Union 1985
 Intended curriculum Curriculum
Ideal curriculum representations
Formal curriculum digital devices, classrooms
textbooks & other learning resources
qualified & competent teachers
Supported curriculum

Promoted curriculum
Implemented curriculum
Taught curriculum Attained curriculum

Assessed curriculum
Inspired by Thijs &
Hidden curriculum van den Akker, 2009)
 How a new topic (such as Computational
Thinking) can enter the curriculum
Hard • A new subject/course (e.g. Computational Thinking in UK)
• A new topic (or set of learning outcomes) inserted to the syllabus of an
existing subject/course (e.g. coding in school mathematics in Finland)
• A new cross-curricular theme (e.g. STEAM)
Intervention

• A new key competence (e.g. entrepreneurial, digital competence)

• Extracurricular program (e.g. MakersRedBox)
• Competitions (e.g. First Lego League, Bebras, hackathons)
• Regular projects (e.g. Image of the Other, HiSpring!)
• Campaigns (e.g. Safer Internet Day)
Soft • Digital learning resources & teacher training (curiosity driven)
 continuum
Digital Informatics
competence
Almost any teacher Additional training Only qualified informatics
is able to teach it is needed to teach it teachers are able to teach it
Information literacy
Collaboration
Content creation
Digital safety
Problem solving
Robotics
Visual coding
Elective courses:
- GINF 5+1
- Geoinformatics
Swimming pool - Data analysis
metaphor - Mechatronics
- CyberDefence
Informatics teacher education in Estonia
• Informatics teachers MA program was fading since 2011 and had to
be shut down in 2015
• Re-opened in 2018 due to pressure from IT employers' association
with extra funding (scholarships, development projects, conferences)
• Informatics teachers master program was redesigned to meet the
needs of the ambitious change in school informatics curricula,
qualification to teach 2 subjects
• Additional re-qualification program for teachers of other subjects
• In total, 30-50 new qualified informatics teachers enter the job
market every year since 2020; NB! there are 510 schools in Estonia
and 80 of these already had a qualified informatics teacher in 2017
Survey
• Conducted in Nov 2022, almost half of all schools responded (143 out
of 301 basic schools, 76 out of 158 upper-secondary schools)
• Questionnaire was partly similar to one used in 2018
• Most of the respondents were informatics teachers, educational
technologists, school leaders
• The aim was to find out the status and content of informatics subject
in schools and their needs regarding teacher education (in the context
of radical curriculum reform)
 How the subject is called in basic schools
Informaatika
Informatics
Muu
Other
Other names:
Creative workLoovtöö
• digital learning (12)
Computer study
Arvutiõpetus • robomath (5)
Robotics Robootika • digismart, elektronics,
digital technology,
Programming
Programmeerimine digimedia, digital
Digital safety
Digiohutus lesson, invention
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Distribution by the grade levels
9. kl
8. kl
7. kl
6. kl
5. kl
4. kl
3. kl
2. kl
1. kl
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Informatics
InformaatikaOther
Muu Digital safety
Digiohutus Creative work
Loovtöö
RoboticsRobootika Programming Computer
Programmeerimine study
Arvutiõpetus
Elective courses in upper-secondary schools
Data analysis for inquiry
AKU
3D-modelleerimine
3D-modelling
Webveebidisain
design
programmeerimine
programming
disain
design
Informaatika
informatics
arendus
software development
geoinformaatika
geoinformatics
digiteenused
digital services
robootika
robotics
cyberküberkaitse
defence
RLPA
basics of coding
muu
other
multimeedium
multimedia
software testimine
testing
arvutiõpetus
computer study
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Elective, taught
Õpetatakse only
neile, kes to thoseisewho
kursuse choose it
valivad Compulsory
Õpetatakse neile, to
kesthose in math
on teatud suuna&valinud
science strand
On kõigile õpilastele
Compulsory kohustuslik
for all students in school
The need for qualified informatics teachers
• Only 2 (+8) schools reported that they would hire a full time informatics
teacher any time soon
• 13% of schools (30) would hire a part-time informatics teacher
• 20% of schools (47) have an informatics teacher who needs qualification
• 18% of schools (41) have an informatics teacher who needs in-service
training about the new informatics curriculum
• 28% of schools (63) would hire a teacher for extracurricular activities
related to computing & robotics
• 12% of schools (27) plan to increase the volume of informatics subject in
the near future, but it is depending on finding a qualified teacher only in
13 schools
Conclusions
• The new informatics curriculum has established its niche in schools,
despite being yet unofficial
• The time window for widening and modernising informatics subject in
Estonian schools is closing, power and funds are shifted elsewhere
• Existing informatics teachers will need in-service training and
didactical guidelines, resources
• Universities might step in by providing more complex courses to
upper-secondary students in the form of MOOCs
• There is still a need for preparing new qualified informatics teachers
in our masters program, but this need is fading faster than we
expected