A Model for Preparing Teachers to Teach with the Microcomputer
Barbara R. Sadowski · The Arithmetic Teacher · 1983
24 depending on the individual teacher's responsibilities. All teachers should know about the computer its history, its impact on society, ethical questions involved in large computer data bases, and the nontechnical aspects of the limitations and capabilities of computers. Teachers also need to know how to integrate the computer into their teaching, which includes knowing the instructional uses of the computer and how to evaluate software. Evaluating software depends not only on knowing content and good teaching practices but also on understanding a programming language and how a program controls what the computer does. Mathematics teachers at all levels, as well as teachers of gifted elementary children and computer specialists, should understand how a computer works and how to control it well enough to use it as a general-purpose tool for problem solving. These teachers should be able to read, understand, and modify programs; analyze problems; develop algorithms; flowchart (or develop a plan in psuedocode); and write and debug programs.