Teaching the Junior Cycle Coding Short Course

Two lessons that establish an honest map of where you are starting from, a working understanding of what the JC Coding Short Course requires, and a productive Lead Learner mindset for delivering it without pretending to be a CS expert.

Engagement is the highest-frequency challenge in JC Coding. This module addresses the two most reliable levers: making a deliberate language-pathway decision, and using physical computing and cross-curricular hooks to make coding tangible and relevant.

Two lessons covering the cross-strand pedagogy that makes JC Coding teachable: evidence-based programming pedagogy aligned to the spec's computational-thinking framing, and the AI, ethics, and society content threaded through all three strands.

The JC Coding Short Course has one Classroom-Based Assessment, offering students a choice between a team software project and an individual portfolio. This is the longest module because the CBA is where good teaching most directly affects student outcomes. Participants interpret the Features of Quality, coach the choice, supervise the process, mark fairly, and prepare for the SLAR.

JC Coding is, for many schools, the recruitment pipeline into Leaving Cert Computer Science, a progression the spec explicitly names. This module treats that pipeline deliberately, with attention to the persistent gender gap and the wide ability spread, then closes with the participant's year plan and final reflection.