The mind's new science: a history of the cognitive revolution
The mind's new science: a history of the cognitive revolution
Human Problem Solving
Communications of the ACM - Self managed systems
A multidisciplinary approach towards computational thinking for science majors
Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
Building bridges to other departments: three strategies
Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
Teaching computational thinking through musical live coding in scratch
Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
A framework for computational thinking across the curriculum
Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
File references, trees, and computational thinking
Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
A model for piloting pathways for computational thinking in a general education curriculum
Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE)
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Specifying file references for hypertext links is an elementary competence that nevertheless draws upon core computational thinking concepts such as tree traversal and the distinction between relative and absolute references. In this article we explore the learning effects of different instructional strategies in the context of an introductory computing course. Results suggest that asking students to do targeted tasks, albeit supported with working examples, is not the best preparation. Instead, unstructured study of examples produces superior learning. Answering targeted conceptual questions can also yield comparably positive learning but only in qualified contexts. While perhaps unintuitive, these results are consistent with a long line of research on human cognition and learning. We discuss our results in the context of this previous research and recommend effective instructional strategies, which may apply to a broad range of computational concepts.