Context | Latin America
Codifica+ is a pioneering initiative in continuous professional development, dedicated to implementing the teaching of computational thinking and coding for teachers in public education systems. The project was inspired by “Programación para Niños y Niñas”, a teacher training programme delivered by the British Council Colombia from 2019 to 2021, which strengthened children's computational thinking skills by training their teachers.
Over the course of its three consecutive annual editions, the initiative in Colombia trained more than 15,000 primary and secondary school teachers across the country.
Educational challenge
In Brazil, Codifica+ was developed specifically for the country’s educational context, in line with national education priorities and in support of public education networks implementing the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) and its computing strand. The full programme comprised training courses and mentoring sessions totalling 80 hours of professional development, with 40 hours dedicated to the basic course and a further 40 hours delivered through the advanced course.
In this first phase of Codifica+, carried out in partnership with SECTI-GO, the initiative reached 32 municipalities across the state of Goiás, all of which benefited from the technical support of the START Labs – local robotics laboratories that facilitated the practical activities.
“The aim of Codifica+ is to better prepare young students for the future by fostering new generations of solution creators, not merely consumers of technology.” Diana Daste, Director of Cultural Engagement at the British Council Brazil
Technical committee
The development of Codifica+ was supported by a Technical Committee responsible for creating new content aligned with the BNCC and tailored to the Brazilian context. The group included Graziella Marazzo, an educational technology specialist and coordinator; Janaina Gama, senior consultant in diversity and inclusion; and William Mello, teacher, researcher, and education consultant.
All members of the Technical Committee had experience in computational thinking and were able to contribute expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The three members carried out activities such as reviewing and evaluating all content developed for Codifica+, including recommending dynamics, activities, terminology, and the use of gender-neutral language, supporting the construction of the Competency Framework, and suggesting bibliography for the course development.
Empowering partners
Codifica+ is a unique and tailored project addressing the challenges of Brazilian education. It helps to empower teachers and public administrators through the use of computational thinking and coding, while also enhancing the delivery of high-quality education.
“One of our goals is to expand the pool of future scientists and technology professionals in Goiás. We will achieve this by equipping teachers to support children and young people in Goiás, encouraging them to engage with the world of coding and robotics at the earliest opportunity.” José Frederico Lyra Netto, Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation of Goiás
Codifica+ also includes monitoring and evaluation tools to gather results that may, in the future, help expand the programme’s reach to a wider range of teachers. To support this assessment, teachers took part in a self-evaluation of their skills prior to the activities.
The project carried out in Goiás was pioneering in Brazil and has become a benchmark in the state for the long-term implementation of similar initiatives, in partnership with public bodies such as the Ministry of Education (MEC) and other sector organisations.