Two studies of perceived and in-situ readiness for implementing the computing education in Singapore

Computing education is garnering more attention from policy makers and educators both locally and globally. In Singapore, nineteen schools are beginning to offer the computing curriculum at the GCE “O” level, that is, for grades 9 and 10. If it is the case that computing education is standing on the verge of being formalized and offered as a mainstream subject, it will be important to understand teacher and student readiness towards the status quo of computing education in schools. This paper describe two studies: a survey study of computing teachers’ from the nineteen schools on their perceived readiness towards implementing computing curriculum; and an ethnographic study of four secondary schools with different degrees of in-situ readiness for both teachers and students during their implementation of the computing curriculum. Based on the two studies, we propose more systematic ways of preparing teachers to teach and students to learn the computing subject. Copyright © 2018 The Hong Kong Jockey Club.