Response on final Curriculum for Coding and Robotics in Foundation Phase

The final draft was made public this morning in Gauteng. Hereby my response:

“I am very positive regarding the new Foundation Phase Coding and Robotics curriculum. Firstly, the fact that it can be presented unplugged (without the need of computers) makes it accessible to all the schools in South Africa. Furthermore, there is a strong emphasis on 21st century skills such as computational thinking, while the type of activities underlying the curriculum strongly supports group work and communication. Teachers will also be happy to see that there are various ways coding can be integrated into other subject areas maths, life skills and languages.

The following points from the document confirms that this is a curriculum that is built on sound educational principles:

? identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking.

? work effectively as individuals and with others as members of a team.

? organise and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and effectively.

? collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information.

? communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes.

Inclusivity should become a central part of the organisation, planning and teaching at each school.

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For the past 3 years we have been training teachers across the country in unplugged coding, using our BOATS and RANGERS lesson plans developed by Kelly Bush. Mainly because of partnerships with teacher unions SADTU, SAOU and NATU we have reached over 30?000 teachers, and looking at the final curriculum, I am happy to say that the teachers have been well prepared.

Next semester we and some of the unions are launching lessons for Grades 1 to 3 that will assist teachers to use block coding in doing baseline assessments.”