Trends in Educational Computing: Decreasing Interest and the Changing Focus of Instruction

This article presents a rationale for changing the current emphasis of precollege computer courses. It suggests that as an interim approach, to be used before computers are integrated effectively across the curriculum, computer courses deemphasize BASIC programming skills and instead focus on teaching applications software skills. The research evidence regarding the quality of computer literacy courses is reviewed, and the parallel cognitive and affective consequences of programming and applications software are discussed. The primary source of evidence regarding student interest in specific undergraduate majors comes from reports on college-bound seniors prepared for the College Board (College Board, 1983b, 1984, 1985). More than 800,000 high school seniors annually complete information regarding their intended college majors, choosing from a list of over 115 fields or specializations. Computer science was first listed as a possible major choice in 1974, with subcategories of systems analysis and data processing added in 1975. Between 1973 and 1983, interest in computer science rose dramatically. Less than 1% of high school seniors chose computer science as their intended major in 1974 (College Board, 1974), w ereas in 1983, more than 10% of high school seniors chose it (College Board, 1983b). In the next two years, however, interest in computer science took a sudden downward turn, with the level of interest in 1985 approximating that of 1981 (see Figure 1). This trend represents a decline of 27%, with women's interest decreasing 35% and men's interest 22%. No other intended major suffered such dramatic shifts during the same period of time. Although this rise and fall may simply reflect the fortunes of the computer industry in general, another explanation for this decline in interest also may be tenable. Students in the 1970s enrolled in untried and novel computer curricula. By 1985, due to their increased exposure to computers and computer literacy courses at elementary and secondary school levels, students had more information with which to evaluate computer science (Becker, 1983a, 1983c; Lockheed, 1985a). The increase in students taking precollege computer courses began around 1979. In 1980, 15% of elementary and 50% of secondary schools provided students access to microcomputers in their instructional programs (Goor, 1982); by 1985, 82% of elementary and 93% of secondary schools provided students access to computers (Becker, 1985). The most frequent use of microcomputers was for national, state, and locally mandated computer literacy courses (Boyer, 1983; College Board, 1983a; National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 1983). In general, the mandates provide for required, not elective, computer course participation. It is the contention of the authors that the generally poor quality and restricted curriculum of these courses, which in 1985 were required for many high school seniors, accounts at least in part for the declining interest in computer science at the college level. Inadequate Computer Literacy Courses Early computer literacy courses, which stressed learning to program in BASIC, were generally of poor quality in terms of teacher training, course curSupport for the preparation of this paper was provided by Educational Testing Service. Marlaine E. Lockheed is a Sociologist in the Education and Training Department, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433. Her specializations are the sociology of education, education technology, and gender in education. Ellen B. Mandinach is Associate Research Scientist, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ 08541. Her special zations are individual differences and educational uses of microcomputers.