This document discusses digital literacy and 21st century skills curriculum in the Netherlands. It provides background on the National Institute for Curriculum Development in the Netherlands (SLO), which is tasked with designing national curricular frameworks. It outlines the historical lack of national curriculum regulation in the country. It then discusses the development of defining 21st century skills like digital literacy, computational thinking, and media literacy. It provides operational definitions and concepts for computational thinking. It also describes the development of learning trajectories for computational thinking in primary education, including feedback received and areas identified for improvement.

1. ΩSLO ● nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling
Digital literacy and 21st century
skills curriculum in the
Netherlands
Allard Strijker, SLO - National Institute For
Curriculum Development Netherlands 2018-
06-21

2. Hey Siri, how old is
my father?
• How to formulate a question?
• How to create an instruction?
• What is the meaning of words?
• How to use computers?
• How to get and control data?
• Where does data reside?
• What data is presented?
• How is data represented?
• Who decides what i see?
• Who is owner of the data?
• Who may use the data?
• Did I get what I wanted?
• Do computers have humor?
• Can computers Think?

3. Hey Siri, navigate
home
• How to use computers?
• How to formulate a question?
• How to create an instruction?
• What is the meaning of words?
– Where is my home
• How to get and control data?
• Where does data reside?
• What data is presented?
• How is data represented?
• Who decides what i see?
• Who is owner of the data?
• Who may use the data?
• Did I get what I wanted?
• Do computers have humor?

4. About SLO
• National Institute for Curriculum
Development in the Netherlands
• Assigned by Ministry of education
• Task: design and validation of national
curricular frameworks
(core objectives,
attainment levels,
examination programs)

5. About SLO
• The projects of SLO are conducted within
the following departments
– Primary Education/Special Education
– Lower Secondary Education
– Upper Secondary Education
– Vocational Education
– Research & Consultancy

6. The Dutch curriculum
• Until the 1990’s hardly any regulation at the national level
regarding the goals and contents for primary and secondary
education
• The only exception: the examination system at the end of
upper secondary education
• High level of school autonomy: a prominent article in
legislation declares the so-called ‘freedom of education’
– the freedom to found schools
– the freedom of school policies
– freedom of school organization
• In other words… the principle of freedom of education
provides schools with more than enough room for school-
specific curricular choices

7. The Dutch curriculum
• In 1993 attainment targets (‘goals to strive for’) for
primary and junior secondary education were
formulated (upper secondary education uses the
examination program as goal)
• At this moment it is a mixture of common attainment
targets (‘goals to strive for’) covering the whole range
of subject domains and common standards (‘goals to
attain’) for literacy and numeracy
• But: there is not one curriculum framework that
provides a common, comprehensive and cohesive
answer to the question of what is of most worth
learning and teaching (freedom of education!)

8. 21st century skills
• 2015 need for defining 21st century skills for education
– Creative thinking
– Critical thinking
– Problem solving
– Communication
– Collaboration
– Digital literacy
• ICT basic skills
• Computational thinking
• Media literacy
• Information literacy
– Social and cultural skills
– Self regulation

9. Digital Literacy
• Digital literacy is the whole of
ICT (basic) skills, media
literacy, information skills, and
computational thinking
• ICT (basic) skills
– able to deal with ICT
• Media literacy
– conscious, active and critical
use of media
• Information literacy
– search, select, process and use
relevant information
• Computational thinking
– (re) formulating problems so
that they can be solved with the
computer
In
Information
literacy
Computational
thinking
Media
literacy
ICT basic
skills
Digital
literacy

10. Perspectives on Digital Literacy
• Dealing with digital
technologies
• Knowing about digital
technologies
• Thinking about digital
technologies
• Creating with digital
technologies
• Digital technologies make
use af a microprocessor
following a predefined set
of instructions
Dealing withIn
Information
literacy
Computational
thinking
Media
literacy
ICT basic
skills
Digital
literacy
Dealing with
Knowing about
Thinkingabout
Creatingwith
Thinking and acting
Study and profession

11. Big ideas digital Literacy
• Communicating and
collaboration
– Everything is digitally
connected: people and
things
• Digital Citizenship
– You are the digital society
• Data and information
– Finding ways to put data
into knowledge
• Using and controling
– Who is in control of digital
technology?
• Using and designing
– Human creations using
digital technologies
• Digital Economy
– Nothing is for free, data
has value
• Safety and privacy
– Safety first!
• Sustainability and
innovation
– Digital technology,
innovation and
sustainability

12. Operational Definition of CT (ISTE,
CSTA)
• Computational thinking (CT) is a problem-solving process that
includes (but is not limited to) the following characteristics
– Formulating problems in a way that enables us to use a
computer and other tools to help solve them.
– Logically organizing and analyzing data
– Representing data through abstractions such as models and
simulations
– Automating solutions through algorithmic thinking (a series of
ordered steps)
– Identifying, analyzing, and implementing possible solutions with
the goal of achieving the most efficient and effective combination
of steps and resources
– Generalizing and transferring this problem solving process to a
wide variety of problems

13. Operational Definition of CT (ISTE,
CSTA)
• These skills are supported and enhanced by
a number of dispositions or attitudes that are
essential dimensions of CT. These
dispositions or attitudes include:
– Confidence in dealing with complexity
– Persistence in working with difficult problems
– Tolerance for ambiguity
– The ability to deal with open ended problems
– The ability to communicate and work with others
to achieve a common goal or solution

14. Concepts of CT (ISTE, CSTA)
• Problem (re)
formulation
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Data representation
• Problem
• Decomposition
• Abstraction
• Algorithm &
procedures
• Automation
• Parallelization and
simulation.

16. Intermediate objectives lower
secondary education
Computational
thinking The student…
Problem (re)
formulation
Can be done in such a way to formulate problems that it
becomes possible to solve the problem by use of a computer
or other tool
Analyze possible solutions to determine the most promising
direction
data collection Can collect process-relevant data
Can systematically collect data through articles, experiments,
interviews, surveys and literature review
analyze data Can organize data logically and understand
Can find patterns and draw conclusions
Graphs can evaluate and apply appropriate statistical methods
Representing
data May represent data by means of models of reality
Can display information relevant charts, tables, words and
pictures

17. 2016 Schools ask for
• Learning trajectory programming
• Supported by government
• Primary education
• 3 large groups of schools
• Specification of concepts en objectives

20. What is a Learning Trajectory 1?
• A learning trajectory is a
reasoned structured set of intermediate
objectives and content leading to a certain core
objective

21. LearningTrajectory
Status CT 2015
Core
objective
Intermediate
objective
Intermediate
objective
Intermediate
objective Intermediate
objective
ConceptConcept ConceptConceptConcept

22. LearningTrajectory
Intended curriculum
Phase 5
objective
Phase 1
objective
Phase 2
objective
Phase 3
objective
Phase 4
objective
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources
ConceptConcept ConceptConceptConcept

23. learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
Realized curriculum
Phase 4
objective
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources

26. Results
+++++
• Positive response from
schools
• Easy to use
• Unplugged activities
+
• Focus on coding and
programming
• Missing Problem solving
and reflection
• To specific learning goals
• Missing computer
aspects
• Use of other concepts

27. learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
learning
objective
Learning Trajectory CT Phase 5
objective
Phase 1
objective
Phase 2
objective
Phase 3
objective
Phase 4
objective
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources
Materials and
resources
ConceptConcept ConceptConceptConcept
Materials and
resources

29. ΩSLO ● nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling
More information, Questions
Allard Strijker
a.strijker@slo.nl