Teaching Programming Competencies: A Role for Craft Computing?

Competency-based education is the recommended paradigm of the ACM/IEEE-CS Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) and the Computer Science Curricula 2023 (CS2023) guidelines. Learners apply knowledge, dispositions and skills in a task context as an integral part of their studies is the competency model advocated. While it would be highly unusual to deliver computing-related degree programmes without considering programming in some manner, competency in programming extends beyond simply writing code; indeed, teaching programming is more akin to teaching craft skills than a traditional academic discipline.