Promoting Long-Lasting Interest in Computer Science: An Analysis of

High School Teachers’ Perspectives

Lucia Happe, Isabel Steidlinger, Ingo Wagner and Kai Marquardt

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Keywords:

Computer Science Education, Interest, Engagement, Interdisciplinary Teaching, Curriculum Design, Teaching

Methods, Teacher Perspectives, Subject Relevance, Diversity, Content, Topics, Teaching Materials.

Abstract:

This study explores the perspectives of high school computer science (CS) teachers on students’ interest in the

subject. Using structured interviews, we identiﬁed factors that may inﬂuence students’ interest in CS, such as

curriculum design, teaching methods, and the use of materials and technology in the classroom. The ﬁndings

reveal the importance of making CS relevant and exciting to students to increase engagement and understand-

ing and promote acceptance of the subject in society. Additionally, the study highlights the challenges and

beneﬁts of interdisciplinary teaching of CS and the value of pre-designed teaching materials in supporting this

approach. The presented study provides valuable insights for educators and policymakers looking to promote

and sustain students’ interest in CS. Overall, the study emphasizes the crucial role of CS education (CSEd) in

preparing students for success in a digital world.

1 INTRODUCTION

The ﬁeld of computer science (CS) has become in-

creasingly important in today’s world, with its ap-

plications spanning various industries and impacting

nearly every aspect of our daily lives. As such, it is

crucial for students to understand this subject compre-

hensively to be well-equipped to navigate and shape

the future. However, research has shown that many

students, especially those in high school, struggle to

maintain a lasting interest in CS (Vidal et al., 2020;

Webb et al., 2012).

Given the importance of CS in today’s world, in-

terdisciplinary teaching of CS is crucial. It helps

students understand CS’s real-world applications and

implications by connecting it to other subjects, such

as math, science, and language arts (Takeuchi et al.,

2020). This approach can also break down stereo-

types and misconceptions about CS being solely

a programming-based ﬁeld and showcase the wide

range of possibilities and career opportunities within

the ﬁeld (Marquardt et al., 2023; Graham and Lat-

ulipe, 2003). Additionally, interdisciplinary teach-

ing can also help to attract diverse students to CS,

as they may be more likely to see themselves in the

ﬁeld if they can see connections to their interests and

passions (Ng and Fergusson, 2020; Marquardt and

Happe, 2023). However, the study also acknowledges

the challenges that teachers face in implementing in-

terdisciplinary teaching of CS (Tytler et al., 2019).

Despite the beneﬁts, interdisciplinary teaching of CS

can be difﬁcult for teachers. It requires a broad un-

derstanding of the subject matter and the ability to

connect it to other subjects. Additionally, it may

require additional planning and preparation for the

teacher and the ability to adapt lessons and materials

to the class’s speciﬁc needs. Furthermore, it may re-

quire more creativity and ﬂexibility in teaching meth-

ods and a willingness to incorporate new technologies

and tools into the classroom. Moreover, teachers may

not be familiar with the other subjects they would be

teaching in an interdisciplinary format and may need

additional training.

Overall, this study aims to understanding how to

promote long-lasting interest in CS by providing in-

sights into the factors that inﬂuence students’ interest

in the subject from teachers’ perspectives.

2 BACKGROUND

This study is a follow-up to our survey on methods

and strategies for establishing an inclusive environ-

ment that has the potential to engage a broad and

diverse audience in the study of CS (Happe et al.,

2020; Buhnova and Happe, 2020; Happe and Buh-

Happe, L., Steidlinger, I., Wagner, I. and Marquardt, K.

Promoting Long-Lasting Interest in Computer Science: An Analysis of High School Teachers’ Perspectives.

DOI: 10.5220/0011986000003470

In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2023) - Volume 1, pages 337-344

ISBN: 978-989-758-641-5; ISSN: 2184-5026

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

337

nova, 2021) and aims to understand what are teach-

ers’ perceptions on the most effective strategies for

engaging CS teaching identiﬁed from existing litera-

ture in our comprehensive survey (Happe et al., 2020).

The survey found that interdisciplinary context in CS

teaching is highly beneﬁcial and has the potential to

engage students through the relevance of the appli-

cation area to their own interests. However, the re-

quirement to teach CS across disciplines leads to an

increased amount of preparation required from teach-

ers and adds to the already high workload imposed on

them. Since there is a large amount of ready-made

material on the internet today that teachers could use

to alleviate this burden, we investigated what their re-

quirements are for these materials and what obstacles

currently stand in the way of using such materials.

Before designing the study, we formulated the follow-

ing research questions:

• RQ Interest. With what interest and what expec-

tations do students start their studies on the sub-

ject of CS? Do teachers consider taking or need to

take special measures to engage and support equal

participation of all students in CS classrooms?

• RQ Content. Which topics (e.g. interdisci-

plinary) interest and engage students most?

• RQ Material. What are the requirements for dig-

ital materials to be used by the CS teachers?

3 METHODOLOGY

We used a structured interview guide (Zimmerman

and Pons, 1986) to explore the perspectives of high

school CS teachers on students’ interest in CS. The

Table 1: Structured Interview Guide.

Topic

T1 Special features of the mandatory CS subject in grade 7

T2 Exciting topics for students

T3 Strategies and Challenges in regard to girls inclusion

T4 Experiences with digital materials

(platforms, problems, and requirements)

T5 Experiences with interdisciplinary teaching

T6 Strategies against stereotypes

T7 Strategies for initial interest and early success

T8 Strategies for self-conﬁdence

T9 Atmosphere and personal highlights

interviews were structured by the topics of Table 1.

To cover all the topics T1-9, we prepared an interview

guide, with seven main questions and two backup (or

in-depth) questions. For every leading question, we

had backup questions to further direct the conversa-

tion.

Table 2: Participants’ gender, age, experience [years], and

taught subjects.

Code Gender Age Experience Subjects

A male 31 2 Informatics, Maths

B female 53 11 Informatics, Maths

C male 29 2 Informatics, Maths

D male 40 9 Informatics, Maths, Physics

E male 33 6 Informatics, Maths

F female 30 2 Informatics, Maths, Geography

G male 47 19 Informatics, Maths, Sports

3.1 Participants

We could recruit seven teachers for our interview

study (2 female, 5 male) in age from 29 to 53 (see Ta-

ble 2). All teach at German secondary schools (Ger-

man gymnasium). The teachers have teaching expe-

riences ranging from two to 19 years. Additionally,

ﬁve of the teachers are engaged in the ﬁeld of CS

didactics beyond the school context, for example in

teaching CS didactics at the university or the seminar

for teacher training. Five of the teachers are also in

close contact with the Hopp Foundation, which offers

workshops for teachers and is involved in the creation

of teaching materials. One teacher is active in the

Chaos Computer Club (CCC) for the promotion and

support of young computer scientists. This illustrates,

that the interview sample consists of very active and

engaged teachers.

Two interviews were conducted in person and ﬁve

online in a private Jitsi conference room. All inter-

views have been recorded. The duration of one inter-

view was about one hour. Prior to the start of the in-

terview, the teachers were informed of their rights and

the purpose of the study. They were also informed

that the interview would be transcribed and that the

data would be anonymized for the purposes of analy-

sis.

3.2 Context

Since all teachers are teaching at German high

schools (called gymnasium), most of them in the state

Baden-W

urttemberg, we will give a brief overview of

the CSEd situation there. The German gymnasium is

a school type with the dedicated goal to prepare stu-

dents for higher education at the university. It is one

of the possible educational paths after the 4-year el-

ementary school (grades 1-4, ages 6-9). The gymna-

sium usually has an 8-year curriculum (grades 5-12,

ages 10-18). In the study area, CS is only in grade

7 a mandatory subject (called informatics, which is

the more common term for CS in Germany), and also

only since 2016. The curriculum in this grade in-

cludes topics from ‘data and encoding’ (e.g. binary

code, image coding,. . . )), to ‘algorithms’ (e.g. condi-

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338

tionals, loops,. . . ), to ‘computers and networks’ (e.g.

internet communication, local networks,. . . ) to ‘soci-

ety and security’ (e.g. encryption, copyright,. . . )

. In

grades 8, 9, and 10 there is no dedicated subject for

CS. Students can choose it only as part of the subject

IMP, which is a combination of informatics, mathe-

matics, and physics. Only in the last two years (grades

11 and 12) students get the opportunity to choose CS

as a dedicated subject again.

3.3 Interview Analysis

The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using

qualitative data analysis techniques (Denzin and Lin-

coln, 2011). The data was coded and themes were

identiﬁed Theron (2015). The ﬁndings of the study

were based on the analysis of the interview data. The

interview analysis was conducted systematically, fol-

lowing the steps outlined below.

Due to the different content emphasis in the in-

terview responses, an evaluation was based on mean-

ingful quotations, between which connections were

revealed and established. Relevant quotations were

marked, extracted, and provided with an ID, result-

ing in a collection of 198 quotations. The contents

of the quotations were assigned to one or more cat-

egories using rough coding, with the ﬁrst differenti-

ation comprising 15 categories, which were later re-

duced to ten categories. The quotations were grouped

thematically and overarching main statements were

formulated. The contents of the quotations, which

were coded with ”interest”, ”content” or ”material”,

were each systematically arranged in a separate table,

providing an overview of the experiences gathered by

the teachers regarding interest development, individ-

ual teaching contents as well as teaching materials or

tools. A total of 36 teaching contents and 29 teach-

ing materials/tools were identiﬁed. For the contents

of the quotations, which were coded with ”motiva-

tion” or ”material - requirement,” a separate tabular

overview was also created, showing which motivat-

ing circumstances the teachers perceived in learners

and which points were considered decisive for the use

of teaching/learning materials in class.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following section presents the results for each

question, highlighting key themes and insights (see

Table 3) that emerged from the interviews.

see the curriculum (only in the German language):

https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/

ALLG/GYM/INF7

Table 3: Most mentioned reasons for interest and require-

ments on the content.

Motivation Description Mentions

Relevance

General education and life-world

relevance to understand the world

and everyday things

Self-efﬁcacy

Implementing one’s ideas and

products, and helping oneself

to progress with own plans

Creativity

Ability to create new things,

unhindered creative freedom,

artistic freedom and expression

4.1 Development of interest in CS

Int Q 1: With What Interest and What

Expectations do Students at Secondary Schools

Start the Subject of CS?

The teachers’ experiences in this regard indicate that

high school students generally have a positive attitude

towards CS as a subject and are motivated to learn it.

The teachers see the origin of the interest among other

things in the novelty of the subject, the social presence

of information technology topics, the assumption that

it is an important subject, and conﬁrm that “everyone

knows that CS is an important topic” (D,19). The in-

terest of students is therefore presumably not based

on the content of the subject, but on the assumption

that it is an important subject. Often the relevance

is also conveyed by the parental home. Parents have

a “ﬁxed image” and say that CS is “important” and

“good for life” (B,16). One of the teachers observed

in this regard students “who already get something at

home about what CS is” and remarked: “actually ev-

eryone imagines programming under it”. As a possi-

ble reason for narrowing the subject area to the activ-

ity of programming, the teacher later reﬂected: “I can

imagine that programming is a relatively easy answer,

even if that is not the main activity at all. So, that it is

something that you can most easily imagine ” (E,23).

The mental focus on programming on the part

of the students was noted by all interviewees. One

teacher described the students’ ideas with the follow-

ing statement: “They don’t know what CS is and they

imagine something else, namely exactly coding, how

to program games, how to use mobile phones, and

hacking.” (D,20). The other teachers describe the ex-

pectations in a similar way. On the one hand, this

assumption certainly contributes to the fact that, as

mentioned above, there is a fundamentally positive

attitude towards the subject among the students. On

the other hand, some teachers see this as a cause for

the differences in behavior between girls and boys.

While some of the students, especially boys, often

Promoting Long-Lasting Interest in Computer Science: An Analysis of High School Teachers’ Perspectives

339

approach the tasks “briskly” (B,8) and without fear,

because they have already dealt with programming

themselves, inexperienced students, who on average

include more girls, are skeptical about their future

performance in the subject: “First of all, the students

and especially the female students have great respect

for programming. They imagine it to be incredibly

difﬁcult and often don’t have the conﬁdence to do it ”

(F,2). Some teachers also described that girls increas-

ingly felt an “initial tension” (G,7) in addition to the

strongly differentiated prior knowledge within a class

due to a lack of previous skills in dealing with com-

puters, which is recognized as a problem for teaching.

Int Q 2: To What Extent Do Students’

Expectations of the Subject of CS Match What Is

Actually Happening in the Classroom and to

What Extent Is Their Image of CS Changed by

the Lessons?

The teachers report, that students at the beginning of

the 7th school year have a predominantly positive at-

titude towards the new subject of CS. The reason for

this is often the assumption that the main content of

the lessons will be programming. In reality, however,

programming ﬁlls only about one-third of the time in

7th grade. In addition, the topics of data and encod-

ing, computers and networks, as well as information

society and data security, are dealt with. Furthermore,

only a part of the lessons takes place on the computer,

which also does not correspond to students’ expecta-

tions. This design of the curriculum risks disengag-

ing students who had especially programming in their

minds and have to do something else now. One ob-

servation of the teachers was that due to the discrep-

ancies between the anticipated image of the students

and the actual teaching reality, disappointment on the

part of the students quickly became noticeable at the

beginning of the school year: “The fact that we don’t

work on the computer for a large part is a bit of a

damper for the students because they imagine it to be

more exciting on the computer. That is actually a bit

of a problem” (E,4). It is difﬁcult to get them excited

about other topics because the students want to have

their expectations fulﬁlled: So, even the boys who say

they are totally pre-educated in CS and have a clue

and interest, that is actually only limited to program-

ming. (E,9)

The experience, that one’s own previous knowl-

edge was overestimated, which tends to occur more

with the boys in a class, is less observable with girls

who often start the school year unsure of their own

ability, but “then they realize that it is easy to grasp

and that it can be done well” (G,7).One strategy to

arouse interest, especially at this age when the topic

of career choice does not yet play any major role,

is “not to open the barrel [to think] about job pro-

ﬁles, but [...] to arouse intrinsic interest in CS. Aes-

thetically, but also to simply understand the world”

(A,4). Through a sense of achievement in class, stu-

dents begin to feel enthusiastic about the subject and

thus gain advantages. Some teachers were also con-

vinced that with the right tools, lessons can be de-

signed appealingly enough to get over the increased

initial disappointment: “Well, I have the feeling [...]

that if you package it relatively well, in an interesting

way, the students will still ﬁnd it just as interesting. If

you work it up methodically and didactically well, it

can deﬁnitely be effective” (E,22). Once this hurdle

has been overcome, the students also get involved in

the other contents of the lessons, because “they no-

tice that it is also very cool content that explains a

bit of this world that exists around them” (G,2). Es-

pecially those subjects that have a clear connection to

everyday life arouse interest. As a result, the students

are “involved for a long time during the school year”

(E,2). According to the assessment of some teachers,

the experience of small successes and “aha moments”

(B,17) is decisive for this and can be achieved much

more often in CS lessons than in other school sub-

jects.

In one case a teacher states that due to different

approaches, the class should be divided according to

gender (or alternatively experience) and taught sep-

arately. While boys try things out and approach the

tasks quickly, girls are more hesitant and ask for more

precise instructions. This makes them feel insecure

and gives them the impression that they are not good

at the new subject. Separation eliminates the constant

comparison with each other and the girls in the class

can become more courageous and gain positive ex-

periences: “[Girls] do easier on all the topics that

are written down, which are more cognitive. But the

implementation, I’ll say hands-on, many girls have a

harder time with that. They simply don’t have enough

conﬁdence, they are too cautious in their approach.

And you have to provide much more support here.”

(G,4).

Int Q 3: Why Is It Important to Start CS

Education in Schools at an Early Age?

This question is intended to show arguments for the

introduction of the subject of CS in the lower grades

of secondary school. From the answers of the teach-

ers interviewed, various reasons can be derived as to

why the introduction of CS as a subject is advanta-

geous for students at a young age. A frequent obser-

vation is that the young students approach the subject

in a more unbiased way than they would at an ad-

CSEDU 2023 - 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

340

vanced age. The later the students get to know the

subject, the more they are inﬂuenced by their envi-

ronment. It is often the case that by 10th grade they

are “somehow inﬂuenced to think that CS is always

a boys’ thing, for some reason” (A,2). Later in the

life phase of puberty, some girls often decide to dis-

tance themselves from the subject. In 7th grade, two

counteracting effects occur instead. On the one hand,

the young students are still learning for the teacher

and can build up new interests more quickly than at

a later point in time when the interests have already

been consolidated. They may ﬁnd a role model in the

teacher or through the suggestions in class from other

people from the world of CS, which they gladly ac-

cept at that age and otherwise look for elsewhere. On

the other hand, it is a compulsory subject in 7th grade.

This means that students do not have to justify why

they are taking this subject and do not have to choose

for themselves in which learning group they want to

spend their time with more or less. In this way, the

view of CS can be shaped positively and create the ba-

sis for students to be interested in the subject area in

the future. A long-term consequence of interested stu-

dents gaining a better understanding of the contents of

CS through the lessons is the sharpening of the idea

about the subject of CS in the broader society. One

teacher describes the current situation with the fol-

lowing words: “And in my opinion, a comprehensive

idea of CS has not yet arrived in society. Something

about computers and something about programming.

But it’s so fuzzy and so woolly” (F,19). CS can thus

be perceived as part of today’s general education. The

contents of the subject are becoming increasingly im-

portant in order “to be able to cope in this world”

(G,17).

4.2 Content of CS lessons

Cont Q 1: What Lesson Content Can Strengthen

the Existing Interest of the Students and Arouse

New Interest?

At this point, it will be summarised which topics of

CS lessons, according to the experiences of the teach-

ers, capture the interests of the students regardless of

their initial ideas about the subject.

At the beginning of the school year in 7th grade,

students in the study area are introduced to CS for

the ﬁrst time by looking at common codes they

have mostly encountered in their everyday lives (e.g.

Morse code or Braille). The students show interest be-

cause they mostly already know the contents and can

now look at them in a different way. For other topics,

too, it is of great importance that students can see a

connection to the world in which they live. One of

the teachers states: “I think CS always has the possi-

bility of motivating students through its content. That

the students are motivated for it when you make it vis-

ible to them that it always has something to do with

their own lives. I think this relevance is extremely im-

portant” (G,14). One possibility is to take up news-

paper articles and current topics in class. This works

well because timeliness is one of the things that distin-

guishes the subject of CS. Some learners “really enjoy

[...] discussing the impact of CS” (A,7) and are very

interested in the social components of the subject.

Since many students mainly associate program-

ming with CS, they usually show the greatest interest

in this unit. Teachers reported that games and anima-

tions can be programmed in a simple way, which is a

lot of fun for both the girls and the boys in the class.

The teachers report that the topic of cryptology

also “works well” (D,13), “creates interest” (E,7),

and “they deﬁnitely [enjoy] it” (G,9). The contents

are inviting because a sense of achievement can be

achieved quickly. At ﬁrst, the students show less in-

terest in the topic of data protection. However, as soon

as they see how they themselves are affected by it,

“then it suddenly becomes exciting” (B,7).

Art and languages can be used to inspire girls in

particular. Unplugged materials are also suitable for

explicitly addressing female learners. They can work

creatively while building an understanding of CS top-

ics. Overall, girls at that age seem to be more inter-

ested in “the big picture” (D,25) and are particularly

inspired by far-reaching visions.

Cont

Q 2: What Kind of Lesson Content Makes

Students Lose Interest in the Subject?

The aim of this question is to ﬁnd out what content of

lessons reduces learners’ motivation to engage with

CS topics. In the study area, it is common, that CS

at school starts with the topic area of encoding. One

teacher (E,6) reports, that this topic can also weaken

motivation, in particular encoding text, numbers, and

pictures can be too abstract for some. Programming

also holds the potential for failure. Less experienced

learners are quickly left behind because the com-

plexity of algorithms increases rapidly. Furthermore,

there is hardly any opportunity to look beyond the ap-

plication of the theory of programming in the lower

classes: “I can’t really teach the concept of software

at that age, they can’t understand it yet” (D,17).

The history of CS and the question of how the

technologies have developed up to the present time

arouses little interest among the learners. They are

most likely to be enthusiastic about the emergence

of the internet, since the topic is so present in their

Promoting Long-Lasting Interest in Computer Science: An Analysis of High School Teachers’ Perspectives

341

everyday lives. However, one of the teachers (B,10)

also observed that not all of them are eager to learn

about the functioning of the internet and the appli-

cations in this area. Two other teachers also stated

that they had the impression that networks “quickly

become too complicated for many” (F,6) and “are not

a typical girls’ topic” (G,8).

If the lessons are strongly mathematically ori-

ented, this has “a rather deterrent effect for some”

(A,5). One teacher (C,7) had the experience of even

losing half the class with mathematical tasks.

One of the teachers sees one reason for difﬁcul-

ties in teaching content in the design of the education

plan: “[. . . ] the curriculum is far too full. [. . . ] it

both burdens the teachers in the subject and also be-

comes a setting for the students, where perhaps the

depth is missing or they are simply put under even

more pressure” (D,4).

4.3 Usage of Pre-Designed Teaching

Materials

Table 4: Most mentioned problems, advantages, and re-

quirements on the teaching materials.

Description Mentions

Problems

No-ﬁt

Structure or content does not

ﬁt teacher’s own teaching plans

No-need

Necessary only for beginner

teachers or career changers

Advantage

Personalisation

Student independence and

personalisation of teaching

easier achievable

New Topics

Content not usually covered

are available, about relevant

problems, topics from the

students’ life

Special Needs

Special support is possible, like

communication through female

role model

Requirements

Structure

It has to be well-structured,

small-steps with milestones

Curriculum

Coverage

Reference to or coverage of

educational plan needed

Background

Information

Technical and didactical

background information

for teachers is necessary

Mat Q 1: Which Freely Accessible Educational

Materials and Tools Are Used in CS Lessons and

Why?

The aim is to determine what added value the mate-

rials available on public platforms bring to the class-

room in order to provide clues as to which criteria

need to be taken into account when creating and pub-

lishing new teaching material (see Table 4).

All teachers interviewed use the programming

language Scratch for the topic area of algorithms.

This language, including its development environ-

ment, is also suggested by the state institutions. This

becomes clear through the training materials offered

on the state’s teacher training server

, administered

by the Centre for School Quality and Teacher Train-

ing (ZSL), which include teaching materials on the

topics of the educational plans of many school sub-

jects in the study area. The teachers use the Scratch

environment because the playful environment arouses

the interest of the students , the direct feedback lowers

the inhibition threshold to try something out and sev-

eral small feelings of success are possible within one

lesson . In addition, the tool offers a lot of freedom for

open projects and especially female students are en-

thusiastic about it . For the design of the lessons, some

of the teachers use additional materials that are freely

available on the internet. The website code.org, for

example, offers an introductory module that the stu-

dents can work on independently . The added value

for the teachers is that during the independent work of

the learners, individual support can be given, which

otherwise there is often not enough time for . Two

other teachers (A, C), on the other hand, stated that

they only draw inspiration for using the platform from

external materials and mainly create their own mate-

rials.

In addition to Scratch for programming, the teach-

ers in higher grades use the simulation tool Filius be-

cause here results are also directly visible and thus

success can be achieved quickly . The didactic tool

was explicitly developed for teaching computer net-

works at German schools and therefore appropriately

maps the contents of the education plan . One of the

teachers remarks with regard to didactic tools like Fil-

ius: “It gives me the possibility to act didactically, di-

dactically reduced. Not everything is presented. Some

things are faded out, speciﬁcally faded out. The es-

sentials are pointed out ” (G,22).

Another “goldmine” for teaching materials for

CS lessons is the website inf-schule.de for many

teachers. On the one hand, the CS topics are pre-

sented by many examples , so that the learners can

work independently and at their own pace . On the

other hand, the site also provides a good overview of

the lesson topics and can serve as a textbook substi-

tute . The lesson topics are structured in particular by

supplementing the introductory materials with subject

https://lehrerfortbildung-bw.de/u matnatech/

informatik/gym/bp2016/fb1/2 algorithmen/

CSEDU 2023 - 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

342

concepts that make connections clearer .

Many materials for teachers can be found on the

App Camps website. However, videos and ﬂashcards

also provide the students with a predeﬁned structure

for independent work . In the materials, explicit at-

tention is paid to female actors who are to act as role

models for young schoolgirls .

Learners can work just as independently and only

guided by a guidance program with materials from

ETH Zurich and Swisseduc.ch. In this context,

however, one of the teachers directly mentions the dif-

ﬁculties that this form of working entails:

It works moderately well, I think. Because it has

the difﬁculty that the teacher then thinks he can lean

back and ”It’s all there”. But students don’t read

everything very intensively and you have to be very,

very awake as a teacher and support very, very much.

(G,21)

Many teachers, therefore, use selected materials

and do not leave the learners alone with the mate-

rial for a longer period of time without providing the

structure . Other elements such as HOUR OF CODE,

LIGHBOT and unplugged materials from Code.org

, YOUTUBE videos by Alexander Lehrmann and the

Finnish website on the topic of artiﬁcial intelligence

ElemtentsofAI.com are integrated in the lessons.

One of the teachers reported using a CORNELSEN

textbook in class. However, the contents are not sufﬁ-

ciently prepared there and it is mainly used for struc-

turing.

Important building blocks of CS lessons are so-

called digital devices, such as the microcontrollers

Arduino and Calliope Mini and the programmable

sewing machine TURTLE STITCH. The special added

value of this is to get results that “you can hold in your

hand” (D,49) and thus quickly achieve great effects.

One teacher (D) found that working with the Arduino

appeals more to male learners due to its physical fo-

cus and working with the Calliope Mini appeals more

to female learners due to its artistic focus. The com-

plexity of working with accessories increases rapidly

and the challenge can be quickly underestimated.

In summary, the reasons for using pre-designed

teaching materials are ease of use (e.g. Scratch), rel-

evance to the curriculum (e.g. Filius), ﬂexibility (e.g.

Code.org), support for special needs (e.g. role models

in app camps) and variety of topics and activities (e.g.

ETH Zurich/Swiss-Educ). However, the teachers also

note some problems with using these materials. One

issue is that while students can work independently

with these materials, they still require guidance and

support from the teacher, otherwise, students may not

engage with the materials as deeply as needed. Ad-

ditionally, these materials may not fully cover all as-

pects of the curriculum and teachers may need to sup-

plement them with additional resources.

Mat Q 2: What Requirements Must Materials

Fulﬁll So That They Can Be Used in the

Classroom?

This question complements the previously high-

lighted criteria for teaching materials. In this context,

the reasons for not using external material are also

mentioned.

A decisive criterion for materials that present CS

topics in an age-appropriate way is the coverage of

the curriculum goals . Furthermore, some of the in-

terviewed teachers stated that the material should be

easy to integrate into their own lessons. In addition to

the goals, the underlying concepts and the structure

of the material , should also ﬁt well into their own

lessons. One teacher stated that the material should

be editable accordingly and should be under a free li-

cense so that, among other things, putting adapted or

extended content online could not lead to legal prob-

lems. Two of the teachers (A, C) interviewed stated

that they were generally reluctant to adopt material

and only used other sources for inspiration. The ma-

terials usually did not ﬁt the class situation and their

own planning and had a software or platform at their

core that was unsuitable. One of the teachers added:

“I think this supports people who don’t have a CS di-

dactics background now, for [them] it’s good. I think

the longer I’m here, I realize I don’t need these of-

fers at all ” (A,10). Other teachers, on the other hand,

were in favor of the material, when it is easily acces-

sible and can be used with little time expenditure. An

important topic for teachers is data protection when

using external materials.

Also with regard to accompanying materials, not

all interviewees held the same opinion. While one

teacher (D) preferred materials that spoke for them-

selves and saw no added value in receiving additional

information , two others (F, G) stated that background

information on the topic and further didactic consid-

erations could be an important help.

5 LIMITATIONS

One limitation of this interview study is that it was

conducted with a small sample of teachers, which

may not be representative of the larger population

of CS teachers. Additionally, the sample consisted

mostly of male teachers, which may limit the gener-

alizability of the ﬁndings to female teachers. Another

limitation is that the study relied on self-reported data

Promoting Long-Lasting Interest in Computer Science: An Analysis of High School Teachers’ Perspectives

343

from the teachers, which may be subject to bias or in-

accuracies. Furthermore, the study was conducted in

Germany, and the results may not be generalizable to

other countries or cultures where the education sys-

tem and attitudes towards CS may be different, and

further research would be needed to conﬁrm the ﬁnd-

ings.

6 CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, the study found that, according to the

interviewed teachers, students in 7th grade have a pre-

dominantly positive attitude towards the new subject

of CS. However, it was also found that as the students

progress in their understanding of the subject, their

interest may wane if they do not see a connection to

the world in which they live. Students are more likely

to be interested in the subject if it is made relevant to

their everyday lives and if they can see a possibility

to have a relevant impact in their world (Marquardt

et al., 2023). Additionally, the study found that the

later students get to know the subject, the more they

are inﬂuenced by their environment, highlighting the

importance of starting early.

Pre-designed teaching materials can help teach-

ers with interdisciplinary teaching by providing them

with a framework and resources to integrate CS con-

cepts and skills into other subjects. The teachers

noted that the use of pre-designed teaching materi-

als can be beneﬁcial in terms of ease of use, rele-

vance to the curriculum, ﬂexibility, support for spe-

cial needs, and variety of topics and activities. How-

ever, the teachers also noted some problems with us-

ing these materials, such as the need for guidance and

background information, and the fact that these ma-

terials may not fully cover all aspects required by the

curriculum. Overall, the study emphasizes the impor-

tance of making CS relevant and interesting to stu-

dents in order to increase their engagement and un-

derstanding of the subject and to promote its wider

acceptance in society.

CS is not just about computers and programming.

It’s about understanding the interdisciplinary nature

of digital world we live in and using that understand-

ing to shape a better future for humanity.

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