In this article, the development of the Swedish informatics curriculum during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990sis studied and described. The study’s design is inspired by the curriculum theory presented by Lindensj¨oand Lundgren [2000], who suggest using the concept of arenas (the arenas of enactment, transformationand realisation) when discussing curriculum development. Data collection in this study comprises activitiesand actors in the arenas of enactment and transformation. Collected data include contemporary articles,journals, reports, booklets, government documents and archived documents. Findings show that informaticseducation in Sweden evolved from primarily focusing on programming knowledge related to automatic dataprocessing and offered exclusively in vocational education (the 1960s and 1970s) to later (early 1980s) beingintroduced in the upper secondary school curriculum under the heading Datakunskap. The enactment of theinformatics curriculum in 1983 encompassed programming, system development and computing in relationto applied sciences and civics. Mathematics teachers did much of the experimental work. It is shown that thecompetencies of upper secondary school teachers at the time rarely corresponded to the demands of the subject(content knowledge, resources and pedagogical skills). Stereotypical examples were therefore developedto support teachers in instructing about the subject content. When implemented in the theoretical naturalscience-programme, system development/systemisation was transformed into a twofold issue, comprisingvocational attributes and societal aspects of computer programming. The implementation of today’s informaticseducation, including programming in the curriculum, should draw from lessons learned from history.For a successful outcome, this study emphasises the necessity to understand 1) the common incentives forintroducing computer programming in the curriculum, 2) the requirement for teachers’ pedagogical contentknowledge and 3) the stakeholders’ role in the curriculum development process.

The paper explores the beliefs of today’s programming teachers from the following research question: What beliefs do programming teachers express regarding teaching and learning computer programming in upper secondary school? To answer that question four seminars were offered focusing on upper secondary programming education. At each seminar, a questionnaire designed to elicit teachers’ beliefs about aspects of importance for their instructional design and students learning was given to the teachers/informants.

The analysis showed four themes in relation to teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching: 1. Students’ individual connective time, 2. Teachers’ pedagogy, 3. Students’ abilities, 4. Students’ interest and motivation.

The assessment process is crucial to teachers’ choice of instruction strategies. This is particularly valid in the beginners’ course, where collaboration among students (peer-learning) is often practiced, and where skills essential to working in groups are commonly considered not to be important. In conclusion it could be said that two distinctive instructional patterns exist among teachers; individual support, and instruction for experience of learning.

A majority of the teachers in the study express a number of expectations concerning their students’ abilities; specific abilities such as logical and analytical thinking are emphasized as important for successful learning, while the ability to work in a group and to communicate is perceived as beneficial but not of any concern during the assessment process. The paper raises the question of whether teachers perceive abilities as fixed and inborn (naïve belief) or something that students could acquire with some effort (sophisticated belief). Findings suggest that a majority of the teachers hold a naïve belief. Findings also show that the teachers in the study focus on the individual, constructivist based learning which indicate that the teachers in the study commonly hold on to relativistic world-views. The concept of pedagogy were also discovered significant as many teachers question the importance of their pedagogy for students' learning.

Computing and computers are introduced in school as important examples of technology. Sometimes as a subject matter of their own, and sometimes they are used as tools, but in principle, learning about computers is part of learning about technology. Lately, the subject is being implemented in curricula to explain society’s dependence on programming knowledge and code. However, there are some considerations related to teaching programming, as the questions of what and how to teach highlight different aspects of the learning objective. In phenomenography, intended object of learning (OoL) is suggested to describe the teacher’s perspective on teaching and learning. There is, however, an analytical reduction made in phenomenography, which makes such a construction hard to distinguish in action. To find ways of bridging this reduction and deepen our understanding of teachers’ work, the article discusses the possibility of using von Wright’s theoretical model of logic of events as a complementary analytical tool in search for understanding of the intentions behind such a construction. Two theoretical approaches, phenomenography and logic of events, are deployed upon one teacher’s case to illustrate that the intended OoL is shaped by the teacher’s intentions, such as balancing the importance of theory and practice, using different learning strategies, encouraging learning by trial-and-error and finally fostering collaboration between students for a deeper understanding of the OoL. In conclusion, logic of events interpretations reveals the teacher’s intentions as being complementary to the principles of phenomenography. Understanding of teachers’ intentions contribute to the understanding of the OoL from a teachers’ perspective.

Teachers focus on one or several objects of learning (OoLs) in parallel. During the process of teaching and learning,students are invited to share the enacted object of learning (eOoL) as teachers shape the intended object of learning(iOoL). A gap is suggested in the steps going from the iOoL to the eOoL because students have differentprerequisites and ambitions. In laboratory work, theory and practice supposedly interplay to enhance students’learning. This study therefore considers that gap and addresses the following question: “What educational intentionsand expectations do programming teachers express when they (in retrospect) describe their teaching during anassignment on a principle from computer science?” Interviews were conducted with five teachers from differentsites (secondary and tertiary levels). A second-order perspective was used to unravel the expected OoL and theteachers’ intentions. The study reveals the existence of other OoLs in interplay with what is expected to be learnt.The teachers reveal a strong opinion regarding practice as a means for learning theory, as three qualitativelydifferent students’ actions will help the teacher to decide students’ theoretical understanding. Further work issuggested to explore the teachers’ reflections about what materialized in the classrooms and thus gain anunderstanding of the gap.