Incorporating Functional Programming into Education

Michał Ślaski delivered a talk on his experiences teaching computer science at primary schools and how to make computing education effective, focusing especially on the integration within a national curriculum. He examined the skewed gender representation in computing education, noting that while mathematics sees a balanced demographic, computing skews heavily male, prompting the question of how to better encourage female participation. His talk shares insights about the cognitive development of children and the importance of teaching methods that do not rely on electronic devices alone but instead use practical and interactive approaches such as the 'Computer Science Unplugged' project. He discusses his involvement in Koderki, an educational initiative aimed at fostering computing education amongst girls using Elixir and other functional programming paradigms, highlighting how they can closely align with math concepts taught in schools. The presentation shares the use of projects like live book apps to enhance the learning process, the importance of intrinsic motivation in learning, and the challenge of material accessibility for a global audience.