The inverted curriculum in practice

Abstract

Teaching introductory programming today presents considerable challenges, which traditional techniques do not properly address. Students start with a wide variety of backgrounds and prior computing experience; to retain their attention it is useful to provide graphical interfaces at the level set by video games; and with the ever-increasing presence of computing in society the stakes are higher, requiring a computing curriculum to introduce students early to the issues of large systems. We address these challenges through an "outside-in" approach, or "inverted curriculum", which emphasizes the reuse of existing components in an example domain involving graphics and multimedia, a gentle introduction to formal reasoning thanks to Design by Contract techniques, and an object-oriented method throughout. The new course has now been taught twice, with considerable gathering of student data and feedback; we report on this experience and its continuation.

Notice of Retraction: The Research and Practice of “Inverted Curriculum” Applied in Experiment of Computer Network

“…Bertrand Meyer, faculty of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, applied the inverted curriculum to introduction to programming in 2003, and applied to object oriented programming in 2006, which is the first case of applying to science and engineering course [5] [6]. The steps of "Inverted Curriculum" approach can be described as follows: a) The developer first uses the system as user; b) The developer analyzes and understands the module of the system; c) The user develops the interesting module.…”

An open-ended environment for teaching Java in context

“…The Inverted Curriculum teaching strategy [7] involves addressing introduction to programming using an "outside-in" approach, where right from the start software construction relies on existing reusable components. These are embodied in a large software framework that the students start to use as consumers, and progressively move on to be producers, exploring, modifying, and augmenting its implementation.…”

Teaching the unifying mathematics of software design

“…We have not tried to use any "light" method that makes formal techniques "invisible"; in our experience students appreciate being taught the theory in an isolated, minimal way, before seeing it applied with constraints. Compared to the inverted curriculum, or outside-in order by Pedroni and Meyer [8], we do not teach class design before control structures, but we do teach programming before requirements analysis. Our way of introducing formal techniques is less gentle than theirs, but our reason is the same as for their outside-in order: to put all students on the same level and keep them motivated.…”