A Necessity-Driven Ride on the Abstraction Rollercoaster of CS1 Programming
A Necessity-Driven Ride on the Abstraction Rollercoaster of CS1 Programming
Author(s): Marco Sbaraglia, Michael Lodi, Simone MARTINISubject(s): Education, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: Vilniaus Universiteto Leidykla
Keywords: abstraction; abstraction rollercoaster; necessity; necessity mechanism; necessity learning design; learning design; CS1 learning design; productive failure; problem solving followed by instruction;
Summary/Abstract: Introductory programming courses (CS1) are difficult for novices. Inspired by Problem solving followed by instruction and Productive Failure approaches, we define an original “necessity-driven” learning design. Students are put in an apparently well-known situation, but this time they miss an essential ingredient (the target concept) to solve the problem. Then, struggling to solve it, they experience the necessity of that concept. A direct instruction phase follows. Finally, students return to the problem with the necessary knowledge to solve it. In a typical CS1 learning path, we recognise a challenging “rollercoaster of abstraction”. We provide examples of learning sequences designed with our approach to support students when the abstraction changes (both upward and downward) inside the programming language, for example, when a new construct (and the related syntactical, conceptual, and strategic knowledge) is introduced. Also, we discuss the benefits of our design in light of Informatics education literature.
Journal: Informatics in Education - An International Journal
- Issue Year: 20/2021
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 641-682
- Page Count: 42
- Language: English