TACCLE3 – Coding Erasmus Project

Project Title

TACCLE3 – Coding

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project aims were:
• To encourage and support teachers to introduce coding, programming and / or computational thinking as part of the curriculum in the 4 – 14 classroom to better equip pupils to develop the skills needed by the European labour market.
• To broaden teachers’ digital skills base and enhance their professional competence
• To show how entrepreneurial skills can be developed and integrated with programming skills

The project objectives were:
• To produce an on-line support package of ideas, activities, materials and downloadable resources for teachers who are teaching coding or programming or who want to.
• To provide CPD courses in a variety of formats and a template and materials for local delivery.
• To establish a dialogue between teachers and programmers, teachers and resource producers, teachers and organisations involved in teaching coding and to act as an agency for exchanges of curricula, ideas and practice.

Despite this skills shortage, there has been limited response from the European education system. Estonia has introduced a degree of computer programming for all ages across the school curriculum, Denmark partially so, England and Northern Ireland have fully integrated it into the curriculum and Finland is taking steps to implement it. Some German Länder such as Bavaria are well advanced; others are not. In other countries, whilst not part of the compulsory curriculum, there are agencies and individual teachers who are trying to introduce programming into the classroom. When at first the focus was merely on coding this has shifted to the more broader competence of computational thinking (CT). Critical thinking, problem solving and algothmic thinking have complemented mere programming. Thus CT has become a truly 21st century skill. The biggest problem we face is a desperate shortage of teachers. Mathematics and computer-science graduates generally choose more lucrative trades; the humanities and social-science graduates who will find themselves teaching coding will need plenty of support as will the primary teachers.

The TACCLE 3 project has:
Developed a website of activities and ideas that teachers can use in the classroom to teach children about coding and programming. These support diverse curricula across member states and, where there is no formal curriculum, support individual schools and teachers who want to introduce computing / informatics / programming etc in their own practice.
Developed some affordable resource kits that can be downloaded or for which instructions for making them are provided on-line.
Designed and piloted some staff development opportunities and learning resources for teachers who are total newcomers to computational thinking which resulted in IST-courses offered through the School Education Gateway and open to KA1 funding.
Stimulated a positive attitute towards STEM with young children
Tested and evaluated existing resources such as the range of software currently available to help children develop programming skills and CT.
Explored and followed up existing research and projects addressing this issue (e.g work on Tangible User Interface for children.)
Entered into policy dialogue and informed policy makers around issues concerning introducing computational thinking schools

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 277856,84 Eur

Project Coordinator

HET GEMEENSCHAPSONDERWIJS & Country: BE

Project Partners

• ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
• SCHOLENGROEP 1 ANTWERPEN
• TALLINN UNIVERSITY
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SALAMANCA
• AALTO-KORKEAKOULUSAATIO
• HARIDUSE INFOTEHNOLOOGIA SIHTASUTUS
• KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE