Coding in the classroom too much work for teachers, says prof
Professor Geneviève Boulet thinks teaching children basic computer programming in public schools is a good idea, but she questions the way Nova Scotia's Department of Education is rolling it out.
Next week children in Grade primary to Grade 6 will start to learn coding.
Boulet, a professor with the faculty of education at Mount St. Vincent University, told CBC's Information Morning she's worried about the burden it will put on teachers.
She says giving teachers only a couple days worth of training probably won't make them good enough to teach coding properly. Instead, Boulet thinks the education system should adopt a specialists' approach.
Boulet says each school could have one teacher receive in-depth training on coding, who could pass on their knowledge to students and other teachers.
"I don't know if it's actually feasible to train all elementary teachers. That's why if we have a specialist model in the elementary then we can focus on, 'You need to know this, not all the teachers in the elementary school, only you.'"
Boulet doesn't believe the current plan will work.
"Teachers have very little time, as it is, to deliver the curriculum," said Boulet, "They give them very basic training and they have to learn to run with it. Often that does not end up in a successful implementation of whatever we're trying to do."
'Many of these things have already been in our curriculum'
Sue Taylor-Foley, an executive director with the Department of Education, said teachers are prepared and ready to teach coding.
"Many of these things have already been in our curriculum and we're extending them and we're updating them and renewing them."
Andrew Stickings, a teacher at Ecole Rockingham in Halifax, says teachers have had to take on a lot of extra responsibilities, but he doesn't see coding that way.
"Actually I don't mind this responsibility, it's something a little more fun than some of the other ones that we've been taking on in the past."
He said students will take to the coding and run with it.
"I think it's out there and kids are going to be exposed to it, if they're not already, and I think it's going to be a very positive thing."
