Engaging students in formal language theory and theory of computation

Abstract

Engaging and maintaining student engagement with the content of a course in formal language theory and the theory of computation is notoriously difficult. A major factor is student's perception of the relevance of the required mathematical material to computer science as they have studied the discipline. Usually, the mathematical material discourages students and for many it forms an insurmountable barrier. This paper describes the construction of a course using the discovery learning technique known as the Moore Method that directly addresses student engagement with this material. The results of the delivery of this course were that students remained engaged with the course throughout the semester and enthusiastically received the pedagogical approach employed. While the course described was delivered to a small class in a liberal arts college, it may be adapted to larger class sizes and taught in any computer science program.

Computational Theory and Key Issues

“…The paper's motive is to introduce a distinct methodology for making interactive and realistic measures to enhance teaching and learning based on the theory of computation [8]. The paper involves teaching methodology, including the introduction of computers in programming data structure NLP and compilers with automatic course enriching automata course by the inclusion of problems as well as natural language processing [10]. Formal language theory and the theory of computation is notably difficult as it immensely entails mathematical stuff for computer science.…”

Recursos Computacionais para Suporte ao Ensino de Teoria da Computação, Linguagens Formais e Autômatos

“…Pesquisadores descrevem a importância dos conteúdos curriculares referentes à TC e LFA para os cursos de Computação, enfatizando o quão essenciais são para o desenvolvimento dos estudantes nos cursos de Computação, mais especificadamente para o curso de Ciência da Computação (Chakraborty et al, 2011;Dognini et al, 2003;Sigman 2007). Esses pesquisadores relatam ainda que conteúdos curriculares existentes em TC e LFA dão suporte a outras disciplinas, também fundamentais aos cursos de Computação, a exemplo de Compiladores e Inteligência Artificial.…”

Digital Teaching and Learning Projects in Engineering Education at Technische Universität Berlin

“…In basic courses on Theoretical Computer Science, there is often a high amount of frustration and failure rates are usually high as well. [26], [27] The heterogeneous groups of students in such courses can be supported using E-Learning solutions.…”