Digitalization of work life and daily living creates pressure for educational changes globally. Many countries have responded to this pressure by integrating informatics into curricula with varying topics. Some have created a new separate subject of informatics, and some have included topics in other subjects such as mathematics.
Finland is one of the countries where informatics topics have been integrated into other subjects. The Finnish national core curriculum is a general description of topics that are taught. Schools create their local curriculum and teachers have a lot of autonomy in designing their lessons. Therefore, this article offers a general description of informatics teaching in Finland.

Primary and lower secondary education
In the national core curriculum for primary and lower secondary education (grades 1-9), content, competencies and objectives are divided into primary education for grades 1-2 and 3-6, and lower secondary education for grades 7-9. In primary education, the students are taught by one class teacher, and in lower secondary education by subject teachers.

The content, competencies and objectives of the curriculum are divided into transversal competencies and subject-specific content objectives. One of the seven transversal competence areas for primary and lower secondary education is information and communication technology (ICT) skills, which consists of four major topic areas:

1) Students are guided to understand the principles and key concepts of ICT use and operation and to develop practical ICT skills in producing

their outputs.

2) Students are taught to use ICT responsibly, safely and ergonomically.

3) Students are taught how to use ICT for information management, as well as in explorative and creative work.

4) Students gain experience and practice using ICT for interaction and networking.

This means that technology is used in all subjects in a way that complements the topics in each subject. In primary school, the class teacher is responsible for teaching all aspects of ICT competence. However, problems may arise in lower secondary schools, where multiple teachers are responsible for teaching ICT competence in different ways.
In addition to the ICT transversal competence, informatics topics are integrated into mathematics and crafts.

In mathematics, the focus is on algorithmic thinking and solving mathematical problems with programming.

• In grades 1-2, students become familiar with the basics of programming by creating and testing step-by-step instructions.
• In grades 3-6, students plan and create instructions (programs) in graphical programming environments.
• In grades 7-9, students deepen their understanding of algorithmic thinking and practice good programming practices. The goal is for students to be able to read, comment, interpret, test, design, and code small programs that solve mathematical problems.

In crafts, the focus is on more practical use cases of programming.

• In grades 3-6, students learn about robotics and automation.
• In grades 7-9, students use embedded systems for crafts, i.e. apply programming to design and creation of products.

The previous core curriculum focused on using technology solely as a tool for subject-specific tasks. In contrast, the current curriculum emphasizes understanding technology and its principles, particularly in problem-solving and thinking skills. Therefore, in addition to the objectives described above, the mathematics curriculum also includes teaching and learning thinking skills.

In primary education, developing thinking skills includes finding similarities, differences, and patterns and practising comparison, classification, observation, and designing and implementing these ideas in graphical programming environments.

In lower secondary education, the thinking skills content includes practising logical thinking, which involves searching for rules and dependencies. Additionally, the goal is to strengthen reasoning skills and practice proofing. Regarding programming, lower secondary education should deepen algorithmic thinking and programming and practise good programming practices.

However, despite the inclusion of programming content and thinking skills in the mathematics curriculum, integrating these into thinking skills related to programming is largely absent from the learning materials. The concept used to combine programming, informatics, and thinking skills is computational thinking skills.

The Finnish framework for digital competence
In addition to the national core curricula for primary and secondary schools, there is also a framework for digital competence which offers support to the implementation of the national curriculum for primary and lower secondary education (grades 1-2, 3-6 and 7-9). The framework covers three areas: digital competence, media literacy, and programming competence.

Digital competence focuses on how to use devices and software (“practical skills and personal production”), how to do it responsibly and safely (“responsible and safe use of ICT”), and how to use search engines and other tools for schoolwork (“information management and inquiry-based and creative work”). On the other hand, media literacy focuses on media as part of multiliteracy. It includes interpretation and evaluation of media, media production, and operating in media environments.

Programming competence has the closest relation to informatics as it emphasizes understanding the principles and functionalities of devices and software in an age-appropriate manner, rather than focusing merely on the devices. It is divided into three main areas: computational thinking, inquiry-based work and production, and programmed environments and operating in them.

The computational thinking area focuses on the thinking skills that are present in informatics. It includes logical thinking and processing of information, solving and modelling of problems, activities, concepts and basic structures of programming.

Inquiry-based work and production area is all about practical informatics i.e. programming: designing and creating programs in different subjects and topics. It includes co-creation processes, creative production, programming as a tool for learning i.e. using programming in other subjects, and practical skills i.e. programming.

Programmed environments and operating in the area focus on the everyday things around the students that utilise programming. It includes programmed technology in different areas of life such as robotics and artificial intelligence and their impact of such as health-related, social, political and artistic opportunities, risks and ethics.

Vocational and upper secondary education
After lower secondary school, students choose either vocational school or upper secondary school, and the topics for students vary widely. In vocational schools, there are fields where informatics plays an important role, but also fields where informatics is not taught. However, regardless of the field, students may need to use technology in their studies – the focus being on using technology rather than understanding it.

In upper secondary schools, there are transversal competence areas and subject-specific content areas. Three out of six transversal competence areas include something about technology and informatics. The transversal competence of well-being highlights the responsible use of technology. In the multidisciplinary and creative competence area, students reflect on how technology and digitalisation support the talents of individuals and communities, and sustainable solutions for the future, considering the interrelationships between environment, economy, technology and politics. Global and cultural competence offers students experiences of learning, collaboration and ethical engagement in technological environments.

In addition to the transversal competence areas, there are subject-specific objectives. In mathematics, students learn how to use software appropriate to the subject and the topic and understand that the result or output produced by software alone is not sufficient to prove, validate or justify a claim. However, informatics topics specifically are not included in the curriculum.

Discussion
As part of the first set of research activities of the DIGITAL FIRST project, the Turku Research Institute for Learning Analytics of the University of Turku dived into informatics teaching and learning in Finland with students, parents, teachers and other people who organise informatics teaching. The results of the research will be published later in all other countries, but one common theme has risen from the discussions: informatics teaching in Finland needs refinement. All participants felt that the teaching is too disconnected and sparse since the reality differs from the curriculum vastly in the worst cases. Therefore, the DIGITAL FIRST project is warmly welcomed. Read more on the curriculum in Finland here.

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