Recursion in gradual steps (is recursion really that difficult?)

  • Authors:

  • J. Ángel Velázquez-Iturbide

  • Affiliations:

  • Escuela Superior de CC. Experimentales y Tecnologia, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/Tulipán s/n, 28933 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the thirty-first SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2000

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

We propose a gradual approach to teach recursion. Our main assumption is that the difficulty in learning recursion does not come from the recursion concept itself, but from its interaction with other mechanisms of imperative programming. We use this basic idea to propose a new pedagogical approach. On the one hand, recursion is introduced in a gradual way by means of three fields (grammars, functional programming and imperative programming). On the other hand, each instance of recursion is explained so that all of its accompanying mechanisms are clearly identified.The approach has three main advantages. First, the teaching of recursion is simplified because it is taught in a gradual way. Second, the concept of recursion is isolated and differentiated from other concepts or mechanisms associated to particular instances of recursion. Last, the student perceives recursion as a recurrent concept in the discipline of computer science.