In this report we consider the current status of the coverage of computer science in education at the lowest levels of education in multiple countries. Our focus is on computational thinking (CT), a term meant to encompass a set of concepts and thought processes that aid in formulating problems and their solutions in different fields in a way that could involve computers \cite{Wing-2011}. \ud The main goal of this report is to help teachers, those involved in teacher education, and decision makers to make informed decisions about how and when CT can be included in their local institutions. We begin by defining CT and then discuss the current state of CT in K-9 education in multiple countries in Europe as well as the United States. Since many students are exposed to CT outside of school, we also discuss the current state of informal educational initiatives in the same set of countries. \ud An important contribution of the report is a survey distributed to K-9 teachers, aiming at revealing to what extent different aspects of CT are already part of teachers' classroom practice and how this is done. The survey data suggest that some teachers are already involved in activities that have strong potential for introducing some aspects of CT. In addition to the examples given by teachers participating in the survey, we present some additional sample activities and lesson plans for working with aspects of CT in different subjects. We also discuss ways in which teacher training can be coordinated as well as the issue of repositories. We conclude with future directions for research in CT at school

The ways in which informatics is covered in K-12 education vary among European countries. In Finland and Sweden, informatics is not included in the core curriculum, whereas, for example, in Lithuania, all students are exposed to some informatics concepts starting in the fifth grade. Bebras is an annually arranged international informatics contest for K-12 level, resulting in a large collection of data about contestants and their results. In this paper, we analyse contest data from the Finnish, Swedish and Lithuanian 2013 contests, focusing on students' performance on tasks related to algorithmic thinking. Our findings suggest that despite coming from different educational systems, students perform rather similarly on the tasks. The same tasks are difficult and the thinking behind picking an incorrect answer seems rather similar throughout the countries. The analysis also points out that there is a lack of easy questions -this needs to be fixed in order to not risk scaring students away.

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När programmering skulle inkorporeras i skolans arbete valde Sverige i sin läroplansrevidering 2017 att skriva in det i matematikämnet, med stark koppling till algebra. Samtliga matematiklärare ställdes då inför utmaningen att undervisa i programmering. Vi undersöker här resultatet av 32 lärargruppers gemensamma arbete med att planera och genomföra lektioner i programmering i matematik i grundskolan. För att få insikt i hur lärare tolkar uppdraget och transponerar läroplananes beskrivning av programmering till klassrumspraktiken analyserar vi det matematiska innehållet i dessa lektioner samt vilken syn på relationen mellan matematik och programmering som framträder i lärarnas beskrivning av syfte, lärandemål, aktivitet och reflektion.  Vi finner att programmeringsaktiviteter i 1/3 av lektionerna inte kopplas till något traditionellt matematiskt innehåll. I övriga lektioner är det främst aritmetik eller geometri som utgör det matematiska innehållet. Få explicita kopplingar görs till algebra förutom till begreppet variabler, men då är det främst variabler inom programmering som avses. I materialet framträder fyra olika relationer mellan matematik och programmering: 1) enbart programmering; 2) matematik som en kontext för programmering; 3) programmering som ett verktyg för att effektivisera beräkningar; 4) programmering som ett verktyg för att utforska matematik. Resultaten diskuteras i relation till matematikämnets syfte och innehåll i den svenska läroplanen. In English When incorporating programming in the school curricula, Sweden decided to integrate it with mathematics, and specifically within the core content of algebra. As a result, all mathematics teachers at all levels were faced with the challenge of teaching programming. In this study we analyse documentation from 32 lessons studies where groups pf teachers have planned, conducted, and revised lessons on programming within the school subject mathematics. To gain insight into how the teachers interpret the new task and thus contribute to the transposition of knowledge from the curriculum level to the classroom level, we analyse the mathematical content in these lessons and the relations between mathematics and programming that emerge in the way the teachers describe the aim, the activites and the learning outcomes of the lessons. We find that 1/3 of the lessons do not connect to any traditional mathematics content, and the rest of the lessons mostly focus on arithmetic or geometry. Few explicit connectiions are made to algebra, execpt for the variable concept, but when variables are treated the focus is on variables in the programming sense rather than algebra. Four different relationships between mathematics and programming emerge in the data: 1) programming without connecting to mathematics; 2) mathematics as a context for programming, 3) programming as a tool for efficient calculations; 4) programming as a tool for exploring mathematics. The results are discussed relation to the transposition of knowledge of mathematics as a school subject.

In this article, the development of the Swedish informatics curriculum during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s is studied and described. The study's design is inspired by the curriculum theory presented by Lindensjö and Lundgren [2000], who suggest using the concept of arenas (the arenas of enactment, transformation and realisation) when discussing curriculum development. Data collection in this study comprises activities and actors in the arenas of enactment and transformation. Collected data include contemporary articles, journals, reports, booklets, government documents and archived documents. Findings show that informatics education in Sweden evolved from primarily focusing on programming knowledge related to automatic data processing and offered exclusively in vocational education (the 1960s and 1970s) to later (early 1980s) being introduced in the upper secondary school curriculum under the heading Datakunskap. The enactment of the informatics curriculum in 1983 encompassed programming, system development and computing in relation to applied sciences and civics. Mathematics teachers did much of the experimental work. It is shown that the competencies of upper secondary school teachers at the time rarely corresponded to the demands of the subject (content knowledge, resources and pedagogical skills). Stereotypical examples were therefore developed to support teachers in instructing about the subject content. When implemented in the theoretical natural science-programme, system development/systemisation was transformed into a twofold issue, comprising vocational attributes and societal aspects of computer programming. The implementation of today's informatics education, including programming in the curriculum, should draw from lessons learned from history. For a successful outcome, this study emphasises the necessity to understand 1) the common incentives for introducing computer programming in the curriculum, 2) the requirement for teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and 3) the stakeholders' role in the curriculum development process.