Abstract
There is near to none attention given to Computer Science at Czech secondary schools. We designed a programme to fill the gaps and now we pilot an experimental course.
We conducted a small study based on a questionnaire to see how students percieve the new subject by midterm. We wanted to identify the sources of difficulties, including too advanced topics or inappropriate study strategies.
We also wanted to compare computer science to other subjects. Finally we wanted to know what are the favorable and unfavorable expects of computer science and also whether students see any benefits of the course.
We found an interesting conflict. Students report difficulties and negative emotions related to the lack of precisely defined solution methods (as known from other subjects).
On the other hand, they appreciate the opportunity to find the solutions themselves. Both these motives appear very strongly in our data.
They show the necessity of balancing the difficulty carefully. In the article we first describe the situation of computer science at Czech grammar schools and introduce the pilot course programme together with the conditions of our pilot run.
Then we show the results of our questionnaire and the conlusions that follow.