Design and Experimentation of Activities for CS1: A Competences Oriented Approach (unpacking the Informed Design Teaching and Learning Matrix)

Abstract

In Introductory Computer Science courses, especially Computer Science 1 (CS1), dropout rates are generally high and results are often disappointing. In order to motivate and engage students to achieve better results in CS1, our teaching strategy is based on designing several activities using a competences oriented approach. This paper describes the use of a framework proposed by Crismond and Adams in order to create pedagogical activities for the CS1 course at Universidad ORT Uruguay. We propose to extend that framework with competences oriented activities. We present a detailed description of each activity. Our thesis is that including this kind of activities helps to obtain better results. Experimentation was done in 2012 and 2013. Teachers of the experimental group referred a high level of motivation of the students. Results show that the inclusion of those activities seems to be helpful for students and the proposed pedagogical design appears to produce better final results.

La permanencia de los estudiantes, un desafío para la Universidad.

“…Tanto a nivel internacional como regional y nacional, en ámbitos académicos como políticos, se reconoce desde hace varias décadas la necesidad de formar docentes y personas creativas, así como la necesidad de implementar acciones concretas en tal sentido (Tan, 2014;Cachia y cols., 2010;Soriano de Alencar, 2007;Villegas-Reimers, 1998;Rebollo y Soubirón, 2014;Vaillant, 2001). A pesar de avances en investigaciones sobre la promoción de la creatividad en el aula (Craft y cols., 2014;Henriksen, 2014;Meacham, 2014;Lewisa y Elaver, 2014;Adorjan y Friss, 2014;Newton y Newton, 2014), persiste en el ámbito de la educación un uso coloquial del término creatividad, en tanto se utiliza sin explicitar el sentido con que se hace. Con frecuencia se habla de promoción y desarrollo de creatividad sin explicitar cómo se evalúa que efectivamente la creatividad se promueva y/o desarrolle.…”

Profile of Promoters and Hindering Teachers Creativity: Own or Shared?

“…In spite of this growing appreciation of Creativity in Education and the abundance of bibliography related to it, some difficulties persist: In the Education's field, the term "creativity" is still used a lot of times whithout making refference to its scientific concept. We considered that as colloquial (Marquis & Henderson, 2015;Bilhalva & Blanché, 2015;Tan, 2014;Craft et al, 2014;Henriksen, D., 2014;Meacham, E., 2014;Lewisa & Elaver, 2014;Adorjan, 2014;Newton & Newton, 2014;Rebollo & Soubirón, 2014); it did not exist, prior to this report, elements that evaluate the promotion or obstruction of creativity by teachers, applicable for its generalized use. Soriano de Alencar (2007) proposed in Brazil a tool with these objectives, not available in its complete form on the web.…”