A paradigm shift to OOP has occurred…implementation to follow

  • Authors:

  • William Mitchell

  • Affiliations:

  • Information Science Program, Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR

  • Venue:
  • CCSC '00 Proceedings of the fourteenth annual consortium on Small Colleges Southeastern conference
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

This paper reflects on the discussions concerning the first year programming sequence that have transpired at the last few national symposiums in Computer Science Education and at other computer education conferences in the past two years. Both paper and birds-of-a-feather sessions suggest that computer science educators are deep into the transition from the procedural to object approach as the preferred basis for the design and implementation of software. This transition has become evident in the introductory textbooks, but it is more evident in the struggles of a faculty that has grown up with structured programming and now has to overcome that deeply entrenched mind-set. The author reflects on the characteristics of this struggle by comparing it to academic worldview struggles that have been termed “paradigm shifts.” Such struggles have been studied in other scientific disciplines and the pattern observed there is emphasized in the author's interpretation of recent events in computer science education.