Design 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. We propose to extend that framework with competences oriented activities. We present a detailed description of each activity. Hypothetically, we propose that including this kind of activities helps to obtain better results. An initial experimentation with low number of students was done in 2012. Results show that the inclusion of those activities seems to be helpful for students taking the course for the first time. However, for students that did not pass the course previously it showed no significant difference.

Teaching combustion thermochemistry with an interactive Matlab application

“…The typical number of students enrolled on the present course within an engineering degree is around 180 per year, which are divided in several groups for the theoretical lessons (three in this case). The practical sessions have a typical share of around one‐third of the total time of the course, what gives higher flexibility to create more working groups to boost the development of transversal competences . In this case, 8 different groups of 24 people maximum are proposed.…”

“…The practical sessions have a typical share of around one-third of the total time of the course, what gives higher flexibility to create more working groups to boost the development of transversal competences. 21 In this case, 8 different groups of 24 people maximum are proposed. This is intended to create a more collaborative ambient that enables the interaction among students.…”

Cualidades creativas promovidas en la formación de docentes

“…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.…”