Abstract
This chapter presents an optional organization theme for the MTCS course around the concept of recursion. Based on the active learning-based teaching model, a series of themes is suggested, each one highlights a different pedagogical perspective. The themes are: classification of recursive phenomena (a non-programming task), the “leap of faith” approach, models of the recursive process, research on learning/teaching recursion, how does recursion sound? (the case of trees and fractals), evaluation (a non-programming project and a test construction), and a list of additional activities that illustrates that recursion can, indeed, be the focus of almost any topic discussed in the MTCS course. Each theme is accompanied with activities devoted to recursion to be facilitated in the MTCS course.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Recursion is only one candidate for such course organization. Other central computer science concepts, such as abstract data types, may also be used for the same purpose.
- 2.
This observation is not surprising since the phenomena were chosen very carefully so that they represent recursive structures and entities.
- 3.
This simplicity refers to the fact that a recursive algorithm is usually short with only few instructions. This fact stands in contrast to the complex process invoked by a recursive algorithm.
- 4.
Harvey calls these little people elfs or specialized doctors.
- 5.
The name tags are attached to the inside side of the pocket to emphasize the fact that the names of an expert’s variables are not exposed to other little people (indeed, they should not know these names); they should know only the number of pockets and the kind of thing (types of variables) that can be put inside them.
- 6.
In the full implementation of the little people model there are experts also for the System.out.println command and the if statement; this assumption is not necessary for our discussion.
- 7.
The chalk holder represents the active actor at each stage of the role play.
References
George C E (2000) ERSOI – Visualising recursion and discovering new errors. Proc. 31st SIGCSE Tech. Symp. Comp. Sci. Educ., Austin, Texas: 305–309
Gersting J L (1996) Mathematical structures for computer science (third edition). NY: W. H. Freeman and Company
Harvey B (1997) Computer science Logo style - volume 1: Symbolic computing 2/e. The MIT press
Harvey B, Wright M (1999) Simply scheme: Introducing computer science 2/e. The MIT press
Hofstadter, D (1979) Godel, Escher, Bach – An eternal golden braid. Vintage books, NY
Kahney H (1989) What do novice programmers know about recursion? In: Soloway E, Spohrer J (eds) Studying the novice programmer: 209–228. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey
Lapidot T, Levy D, Paz T (2000) Functional programming for high school students. (in Hebrew). Migvan – R&D in Computer Science Teaching, Technion, Haifa, Israel
Lapidot T, Hazzan O (2005) Song debugging: Merging content and pedagogy in computer science education. Inroads –SIGCSE Bull 37(4): 79–83
Leron U (1988) What makes recursion hard?, Proc. 6th Int. Cong. Math. Educ. (ICME6), Budapest, Hungary
Levy D, Lapidot T (2000) Recursively speaking: Analyzing students’ discourse of recursive phenomena. Proc. 31st SIGCSE Tech. Symp. Comput. Sci. Educ., Austin, Texas: 315–319
Scholtz T, Sanders I (2010) Mental models of recursion: Investigating students’ understanding of recursion. ITiCSE 2010, Ankara, Turkey
Shulman L S (1986) Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. J. Educ. Teach. 15(2): 4–14
Vickers P (1999) CAITLIN: Implementation of a musical program auralization system to study the effects on debugging tasks as performed by novice Pascal programmers. A doctoral thesis submitted to Loughborough University. Available at http://computing.unn.ac.uk/staff/cgpv1/caitlin/index.htm Accessed 22 September 2010
Wu C, Dale N B, Bethel L J (1998) Conceptual models and cognitive styles in teaching recursion. Proc. 30th SIGCSE Tech. Symp. Comput. Sci. Educ, Atlanta GA, USA: 292–296
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hazzan, O., Lapidot, T., Ragonis, N. (2011). Integrated View at the MTCS Course Organization: The Case of Recursion. In: Guide to Teaching Computer Science. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-443-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-443-2_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-85729-442-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-443-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)