Positioning Brazilian Standards for K-12 Computing: A Comparison with International Curricula

• Adelmo Eloy University of São Paulo / Columbia University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5658-7774
• Luiz Alves University of São Paulo
• Paulo Blikstein Columbia University
• Roseli de Deus Lopes University of São Paulo

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/educomp.2024.237513

Abstract

The integration of Computer Science to K-12 Education is a global movement, accelerated by various motivations. Within the public policy level, integrating computing ideas into national curricula aims to legitimize and guide efforts towards the development of skills related to computational thinking. Recently, the federal government in Brazil has delineated specific skills to be developed in the realm of computing education throughout K-12 by adding cto the omputing standards National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC), which is also an opportunity to compare this policy with those of other countries. The research question guiding this study is: How do the skills proposed in the BNCC for Computing compare with curricular standards from other settings? To answer this question, this study employs text analysis techniques to contrasts the Brazilian computing curricular document with those from two countries adopting similar policies, . The findings suggest a higher level of detail in Brazil's BNCC for Computing, with standards more focused on concepts than practices, albeit emphasizing the social aspects of the science. Although these results are limited to the analysis of the documents themselves, they offer insights into potential strengths and limitations of this policy document that will inform initiatives in K-12 computing education across the country over the coming years.

Keywords: K-12 Computing Curricula, Computer Science Education, Computational Thinking, National Common Core Curriculum

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