CODING FOR CHILDREN – A WAY TO FULFILL THE AIMS OF THE OECD LEARNING COMPASS 2030?

Abstract

In recent years two kind of publications were observable: On the one hand, there were many contributions arguing why every child should learn to code. Beside fascinating and motivating children for STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) topics and giving a good career preparation, coding also can strengthen general skills like e.g. resilience, creativity and organization. On the other hand, there exist several publications by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) describing future skills for children as well as issues of future education and work. Particularly the OECD has developed the “OECD Learning Compass 2030”. This work is divided into several concepts. Each concept describes different skills being relevant for the children future. In this contribution, we want to compare, contrast and merge these two fields of publications. Therefore, we examine an extensive literature review and give an overview about skills that can be imparted by teaching children to code. Then we take a look at OECD’s compass and general skills. Therefore, we analyze the publications of OECD and apply text extraction to get relevant keywords of skills. Subsequently, we compare the coding skills with the OECD skills and look which aspects of the OECD compass can be fulfilled by teaching to code. As a result, we can note that attaining many of the OECD future skills can be supported by teaching children to code. We also have identified which skills cannot covered by coding resp. which additional benefits knowledge in coding offers. The paper concludes with a summary and an outlook. Future tasks are, e.g. examine at which age children should start learning to code, which are appropriate ways to teach and learn coding or concerning the question whether coding education should be realized as an one-size-fits-all approach or by applying internal differentiation.