Reflections on the Teaching of Programming: Methods and Implementations (Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Programming and Software Engineering): 4821 - Softcover

Reseña del editor

For50years,wehavebeenteachingprogramming.Inthattime,wehaveseen- mentouschanges.Fromteachinga?rstcourseusinganassemblylanguageorF- tran I to using sophisticated functional and OO programming languages. From computerstouchedonlybyprofessionaloperatorstocomputersthatchildrenplay with. From input on paper tape and punch cards, with hour-long waits for o- put from computer runs, to instant keyboard input and instant compilation and execution.Fromdebuggingprogramsusingpages-longoctaldumpsofmemoryto sophisticateddebuggingsystemsembeddedinIDEs.Fromsmall,toyassignments to ones that inspire because of the ability to include GUIs and other supporting software. From little knowledge or few theories of the programming process to structured programming, stepwise re?nement, formal development methodo- gies based on theories of correctness, and software engineering principles. And yet, teaching programming still seems to be a black art. There is no consensus on what the programming process is, much less on how it should be taught. We do not do well on teaching testing and debugging. We have debates notonlyonwhether toteachOO?rstbutonwhether it can be taught?rst.This muddled situation manifests itself in several ways. Retention is often a problem. Our colleaguesin other disciplines expect students to be able to programalmost anything after a course or two, and many complain that this does not happen. In some sense, we are still ?oundering, just as we were 50 years ago. Part of the problem may be that we are not sure what we are teaching. Are we simply providing knowledge, or are we attempting to impart a skill? Many introductorytextsareorientedatteachingprograms ratherthanprogramming- theycontainlittle materialonthe programmingprocessandonproblemsolving.

Reseña del editor

This state-of-the-art survey, reflecting on the teaching of programming, has been written by a group of primarily Scandinavian researchers and educators with special interest and experience in the subject of programming. The 14 chapters - contributed by 24 authors - present practical experience gathered in the process of teaching programming and associated with computing education research work. Special emphasis is placed on practical advice and concrete suggestions.

The authors are all members of the Scandinavian Pedagogy of Programming Network (SPoP), and bring together a diverse body of experiences from the Nordic countries. The 14 chapters of the book have been carefully written and edited to present 4 coherent units on issues in introductory programming courses, object-oriented programming, teaching software engineering issues, and assessment. Each of these individual parts has its own detailed introduction.

The topics addressed span a wide range of problems and solutions associated with the teaching of programming such as introductory programming courses, exposition of the programming process, apprentice-based learning, functional programming first, problem-based learning, the use of on-line tutorials, object-oriented programming and Java, the BlueJ environment to introduce programming, model-driven programming as opposed to the prevailing language-driven approach, teaching software engineering, testing, extreme programming, frameworks, feedback and assessment, active learning, technology-based individual feedback, and mini project programming exams.