A participative approach to teaching programming

  • Authors:

  • Tony Jenkins

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Computer Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

  • Venue:
  • ITiCSE '98 Proceedings of the 6th annual conference on the teaching of computing and the 3rd annual conference on Integrating technology into computer science education: Changing the delivery of computer science education
  • Year:
  • 1998

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Abstract

In this paper, we describe an approach to the teaching of introductory programming to students with no previous experience of programming. The approach is based on the key idea of making students active participants in classes rather than passive recipients as might be the case when they are exposed to more traditional lecture-based teaching. In these classes the students are called upon to adopt the rôles of various components in a program and to "act out" relevant processes and procedures.We consider why such an approach might be effective and why it might be expected to be particularly effective in the area of introductory programming.The techniques described were developed and tested during the 1997/98 academic session in the School of Computer Studies at the University of Leeds. At the end of the presentation a brief evaluation was carried out.In conclusion we consider the effectiveness of the approach after a semester's experience and describe planned future developments.