A university subject first
In the 1950s and early 1960s, anyone learning to program usually did so at a university, a research lab or a company that owned a computer. Computer science as a named academic field took shape during the 1960s, as universities set up departments and degree programs. Dates for the first of these differ depending on how one defines a department, so it is better to say that it happened around that decade in several places.
Secondary schools were a different matter. Computers were costly, and few schools could afford one. Teaching at this level, where it happened, was typically run by an enthusiastic teacher, often a math teacher, with help from a local university or company.
Time-sharing opens a door
A major change came with time-sharing, which let many users work on one large computer from separate terminals. In the 1960s and 1970s, some schools were able to rent a terminal and a telephone connection to a remote machine. The BASIC language, developed in the 1960s with beginners in mind, suited this setting well because it was relatively easy to read and write. Students typed short programs, ran them, and corrected errors.
Access was often limited: a handful of terminals for a whole school, time charged by the hour, and programs stored on paper tape or on the remote computer. Even so, this period gave a generation of students their first experience of programming, and it established the idea that it could be taught to teenagers.
Microcomputers spread the experience
In the late 1970s and 1980s, microcomputers made computers cheap enough for many schools to own. Programming was a common activity in the early years, in part because commercial educational software was still scarce and the machines usually started in a language like BASIC. Teachers could show a class how to make a computer draw a shape or ask a question and respond.
Several threads then ran side by side:
- Programming courses, often elective, aimed at students interested in technology
- Computer awareness or literacy classes covering how computers work and what they are used for, which links to the wider movement for computer literacy
- Using computers as tools, such as for word processing, and as aids for other subjects
- Languages for younger learners, such as Logo, which treated programming as a way of exploring ideas
In the United States, an Advanced Placement course and exam in computer science began in the mid-1980s, giving high school programming a recognized standard path toward college credit. Other countries developed their own qualifications and syllabi, which differ in content and timing.
From programming to “ICT”
During the 1990s, many schools shifted their emphasis. Spreadsheets, word processors and presentation programs were widely used, and courses often turned to teaching these applications under names such as information technology or information and communications technology. This was practical, since many students would need those skills for work, but it led to a common complaint: pupils learned to use software without learning how it works.
Meanwhile, the underlying subject, which covers algorithms, data, abstraction and how to break a problem into steps, was sometimes overshadowed. Whether that was a mistake or a reasonable response to employer demands is a matter of opinion.
A return to fundamentals
From around the 2000s and 2010s, educators, professional groups and governments in several countries argued that computing should be taught as a core subject, not only as a set of office skills. Visual block-based programming environments, including Scratch from MIT, lowered the barrier for younger children. Volunteer and nonprofit organizations ran coding events, and some national curricula were revised to include programming and computational thinking from early grades. England’s national curriculum changes in the mid-2010s are one frequently cited example.
Different places made different choices, and the picture is far from uniform. Some school systems treat computing as a required subject; others as an option; others fold it into math or technology classes.
Persistent challenges
- Teacher supply. People with strong computing backgrounds often have well-paid alternatives in industry, and training existing teachers takes time.
- Equity. Access to courses, equipment and encouragement has varied by school and by student background, and participation in computing courses has long been uneven across groups.
- Moving targets. Languages, tools and careers change quickly, so a syllabus can look dated within a few years.
- Purpose. People disagree about whether schools should aim to produce programmers, informed citizens or both. Evidence that learning to code improves general problem solving is mixed.
A fair assessment
Computing did not enter classrooms at one moment. It arrived first as a handful of terminals, then as machines in labs, then as software tools, and finally as a subject in its own right with its own curriculum. The need to explain the nature of the field has shaped each stage. For readers interested in the academic side, the field itself has its own history, which this account touches only from the school side.