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Tinkering in Informatics wins 2018 Best Practices in Education Award

The winner of the Informatics Europe 2018 Best Practices in Education Award is the Tinkering in Informatics as a Teaching Method project 

submitted by Dr. Angelika Mader, Dr. Ansgar Fehnker and Dr. Alma Schaafstal from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Twente, Netherlands.

BEA 2018 award ceremonyThe Best Practices in Education Award, organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft, was presented at a special ceremony held in Gothenburg, Sweden, during the 2018 European Computer Science Summit. Dr. Angelika Mader received the award and presented the scope and impact of their actions.

“We practice a way of teaching that is open for a diverse population of students, concerning background, computer literacy and also motivation,” explains Angelika Mader. “Tinkering is a playful approach, in which students can choose their own design goals and path, given a context consisting of a toolbox and quality requirements. Ownership and responsibility are key factors in the motivation of students, that, at the same time, give the space for individual development for the whole range of students, from the weak ones to the very talented ones. We observe also that by individual design goals performance differences between genders vanish, and plagiarism does not play a role any more. In addition to programming skills, we argue, tinkering supports also basic scientific activities as raising questions, observing, reflecting, forming of hypotheses, etc., and is, therefore, suitable as an academic teaching method”. Dr. Mader adds: “We are very happy about the award from Informatics Europe for best practices in education, showing that our concept is recognised by a broader community. Hopefully it finds its way in the mindset of many more lecturers as a more satisfying way of teaching! Together with my colleague, Ansgar Fehnker, we will take the chance to develop our method further addressing existing challenges, like scalability in this feedback intensive approach, supported by our Director of Education, Alma Schaafstal”. 

Prof. Michael Kölling (King’s College London), Chair of this year`s Award Committee declares: “The “Tinkering in Informatics as a Teaching Method” project presents an idea – tinkering, the self-directed, playful exploration of material – that has been discussed for some time. Previously this method was presented mainly in the context of school age education with very young learners. The project presented here adds a number of significant contributions: the method is adapted for an academic environment, it is described in detail with concrete and specific information, reports on experience over a number of years, and presents evidence of its impact. As a result, the project is presented in a manner that makes it easily reproducible, thus having wide potential impact across the discipline, in both the quality of the student experience and in widening participation. We also commend the work of the team behind the “Growing CyberOlympic program in Estonia using WHIRLPOOL method” proposal which received an honourable mention. This project has managed, in collaboration with government and numerous companies, to engage hundreds of schools and thousands of pupils in computing and cybersecurity”. 

The Best Practices in Education Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of 5,000 Euros. The grant is to be used for further work on the selected project.

“Microsoft is delighted with the strong nominations received for the Informatics Europe 2018 Best Practices in Education Award and congratulates the winner’s team members for their dedication to transform and innovate Informatics teaching”, explains Dr. Evelyne Viegas, Director of Artificial Intelligence Outreach at Microsoft Research. For more information, visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research.

About the Best Practices in Education Award

In line with its mission to foster and promote teaching quality in Informatics, Informatics Europe annually presents the "Best Practices in Education Award". The 2018 edition wasdevoted to educational initiatives Transforming Informatics Education. The Award recognizes outstanding European educational initiatives that improve the quality of Informatics teaching and the attractiveness of the discipline, and that can be applied beyond their institutions of origin. The Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of EUR 5,000. 

Visit www.informatics-europe.org/awards/education-award.html to learn more. 

About Informatics Europe

Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in Informatics (or Computer Science) in Europe. Bringing together university departments and research laboratories, it creates a strong voice to safeguard and shape quality research and education in Informatics. With around 130 member institutions across 31 countries, Informatics Europe promotes common positions and acts on common priorities. 

Visit www.informatics-europe.org to learn more.