Volume 4, No. 2 – May 2003

Review Note

Peter Berger (2001). Computer und Weltbild. Habitualisierte Konzepte von der Welt der Computer [Computer and Worldview. Habitualized Concepts of the World of Computers]

Till Westermayer (Germany)

Abstract: Computer and worldview is not an ethnology of computer culture as a whole, even though the description on the dustcover promises this. Instead, it consists of four more or less separate parts, each not uninteresting on its own. About a third of the book is dedicated to the construction of a detailed, multi-facetted model of worldviews, based on philosophy, social psychology and cognition science. BERGER also describes and legitimates his choice of qualitative research in detail. A methodological innovation is the use of "incubation questionnaires" preceding the interview itself. The third section of the book informs the reader about the history of computer science, about computer science at school—especially in North Rhine Westphalia—, and about computer culture in everyday life. In the last section he presents empirical results based on interviews (N=28) with computer science schoolteachers. This part concentrates on their habitualized worldview, especially in regard to the role computers play, their view on computer science and the various styles of teaching and thinking, which he classifies as either "creative" or "formal". Both the construction of a differentiated model of worldviews and the empirical results concerning the teaching of computer science in schools have value. Seen as a whole, however, BERGER's work lacks some cohesion.

Key words: computer science, computer science at school, computer science teacher, computer culture, worldview, habitus, thinking style, qualitative research

This contribution is only available as a full text in the German language. German text

Last update: 05/30/2003

Volume 4, No. 2 Table of Contents

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