Teaching entering students to think like computer scientists

Turner, Elise H.; Turner, Roy M.

doi:10.1145/1047124.1047451

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Prior programming experiences are often over-estimated [41]. Students who are not so interested in computers never think of studying this subject [7], while others who do well in using it believe to be able to cope with CS as well [2], [39]. Beliefs about IT-jobs and IT-careers are restricted to the cliché of a lonely male programmer at the computer [26].…”

Section: Role Of Computing Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards computer science-computing experiences as a starting point and barrier to computer science

Schulte

Knobelsdorf

2007

Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Computing Education Research

149

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In which way do computing experiences shape attitudes towards computer science? Why do they foster some students' commitment to the subject while they deter others? By using a qualitative research approach we observed that computing experiences have impacts on several dimensions: They affect the self-image with regard to computing, the world-image with regard to conceptions of the subject, and habits in computing. We determined different perceptions of computing (summarized as: use, professional use and design), which together with attitudes (attributions and concepts) of the field enable or inhibit pathways into the field.

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Section: Role Of Computing Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes towards computer science-computing experiences as a starting point and barrier to computer science

Schulte

Knobelsdorf

2007

Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Computing Education Research

149

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“…This course is a rigorous, non-programming introduction to computer science, described in detail in [5]. The course is unlike most non-programming introductions because it is neither a high-level survey nor a pre-programming course.…”

Section: Foundations Of Computer Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The course is structured to instill good study habits in the students and to help them to succeed [5]. In addition, we explicitly teach students good study habits.…”

Section: Foundations Of Computer Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Retaining majors through the introductory sequence

Turner

Albert

Turner

et al. 2007

Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

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Retention is an important issue for Computer Science Departments. In many cases students leave the major due to frustrations with programming in the complex languages often used in CS1 and CS2 or because they do not understand that computer science is much more than programming. We have redesigned our introductory sequence to include a rigorous, non-programming introduction to the field and a CS1 course which uses Scheme so that students can focus on the principles of programming instead of the complexities of a particular language. In the first year that we have required these courses in our major, we have had positive results. In this paper, we describe what we have learned through discussions with students and student surveys.

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“…Programming is an integral part of computer science and many other scientific fields. As a result, it has received widespread attention in computer science education research as part of CS1 and CS2 [27,16,30,5,7]. On the other hand, there is a dearth of any formal research on graduate level programming courses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus on just programming in CS1 and CS2 results in students mastering coding rather the theory behind it. In addition, students never think like computer scientists because they are never introduced to how computer scientists think about problems in their respective domains [27]. Furthermore, there is a large disconnect between how programming is taught in these courses and how it is actually employed in the real-world [16,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Zen of Graduate-level Programming

Nabi

2014

Preprint

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The ubiquity of technology in our daily lives and the economic stability of the technology sector in recent years, especially in areas with a computer science footing, has led to an increase in computer science enrollment in many parts of the world. To keep up with this trend, the undergraduate computer science curriculum has undergone many revisions, analysis, and discussion. Unfortunately, the graduate level curriculum is lagging far behind in computer science education literature and research. To remedy this, we present the blueprint and execution of a graduate level course in programming, designed specifically to cater to the needs of graduate students with a diverse background both in CS and other fields. To this end, the course is divided into two halves. In the first half, students are introduced to different programming concepts, such as multi-paradigm programming, data structures, concurrency, and security to bring them up to speed and provide a level playing field. In the second half, all of these concepts are employed as building blocks to solve real-world problems from data mining, natural language processing, computer vision, and other fields. In addition, the paper also discusses in detail the evaluation instruments employed for the course. Moreover, we also share anecdotal information around student feedback, course design, and grading that may be useful for others who wish to replicate our curriculum or sketch a similar course.

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Teaching entering students to think like computer scientists

Cited by 4 publications

References 8 publications

Attitudes towards computer science-computing experiences as a starting point and barrier to computer science

Attitudes towards computer science-computing experiences as a starting point and barrier to computer science

Retaining majors through the introductory sequence

The Zen of Graduate-level Programming

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