Education

What is the rationale for the 2019 Primary School Computing Syllabus?

Computing is one of the essential school subjects that permeates and can be applied to all areas of learning. This is because it provides students with access to important computing ideas, knowledge and skills that they can draw on in their personal and work lives, as well as their learning of other school subjects.

Computing learning provides the opportunity for students to develop essential skills and competencies, and motivates learners to become flexible problem solvers and life-long learners. In an increasingly technological age the possession of problem solving and decision-making skills is an essential pre-requisite and these are acquired in the learning of computing.

PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

The teaching is focused around a supportive and inclusive learning environment by positively engaging teacher-student relationships. Teachers have the responsibility to create a cooperative learning environment where students feel safe and secure.

In addition, appropriate improvisation techniques would be used to represent the actual devices when they are not available.

Relevance, engagement and problem solving best describe the computing teaching philosophy.

In other words, teaching of computing adopts the hands-on approach that is, the tactile/kinaesthetic approach. Students learn computing subject best when they are actively involved in the learning process, and that an engaging classroom best facilitates this. Students should be engaged in computing by using diverse teaching methods, encouraging the use of a variety of their cognitive skills.

The more students process data, the more likely they would be to apply, analyse, synthesise, and evaluate the information. Teaching of computing should enable learners know how data can be used to understand themselves, explain situations they find themselves in, describe the why and how some things happened or predict what might happen in the future.

LEARNING PHILOSOPHY

Computing education develops a wide range of skills including problem solving, design construction, communication, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

The skills learnt can then be applied to other fields of endeavour. Learners should have freedom of expression and creativity. Learners should be able to experiment and to realize their strengths and weaknesses in the computing subject.

Each learner’s learning style should be tie into the learning of computing so as to enable learners grow and learn on their own. Learners should be giving the chance to pose their own questions and try to answer them independently.

Learners should be encouraged to find information in a variety of ways. Learners should also be encouraged to work on projects in groups to
foster collaborative learning.

SUBJECT AIMS

The computing curriculum is designed to help learners to:
1. Acquire basic ICT literacy
2. Communicate effectively using ICT tools
3. Develop interest and acquire skills in the use of the internet
4. Develop basic ethics in using ICT tools
5. Acquire basic programming and database skills