Teaching abstraction in introductory courses

Herman Koppelman; Betsy van Dijk

doi:10.1145/1822090.1822140

Teaching abstraction in introductory courses

Herman Koppelman, Betsy van Dijk

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

11 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Abstraction is viewed as a key concept in computer science. It is not only an important concept but also one that is difficult to master. This paper focuses on the problems that novices experience when they first encounter this concept. Three assignments from introductory courses are analyzed, to understand why abstraction is difficult for novices. This analysis leads to a number of guidelines that can be used by instructors to support novices learning abstraction.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	ITiCSE’10
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	174-178
Number of pages	4
ISBN (Print)	978-1-60558-820-9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1822090.1822140
Publication status	Published - Jun 2010
Event	15th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2010 - Ankara, Turkey Duration: 26 Jun 2010 → 30 Jun 2010 Conference number: 15

Conference

Conference	15th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2010
Abbreviated title	ITiCSE
Country/Territory	Turkey
City	Ankara
Period	26/06/10 → 30/06/10

Keywords

Recursion
Abstraction level
Pedagogy
Abstraction
IR-79611
Computer Science
EWI-21450

Access to Document

10.1145/1822090.1822140

Cite this

@inproceedings{e67975ee9e024b01ad99de42ff726a7e,

title = "Teaching abstraction in introductory courses",

abstract = "Abstraction is viewed as a key concept in computer science. It is not only an important concept but also one that is difficult to master. This paper focuses on the problems that novices experience when they first encounter this concept. Three assignments from introductory courses are analyzed, to understand why abstraction is difficult for novices. This analysis leads to a number of guidelines that can be used by instructors to support novices learning abstraction.",

keywords = "Recursion, Abstraction level, Pedagogy, Abstraction, IR-79611, Computer Science, EWI-21450",

author = "Herman Koppelman and {van Dijk}, Betsy",

year = "2010",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1145/1822090.1822140",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-60558-820-9",

pages = "174--178",

booktitle = "ITiCSE{\textquoteright}10",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "United States",

note = "15th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2010, ITiCSE ; Conference date: 26-06-2010 Through 30-06-2010",

}

Koppelman, H & van Dijk, B 2010, Teaching abstraction in introductory courses. in ITiCSE’10: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 174-178, 15th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2010, Ankara, Turkey, 26/06/10. https://doi.org/10.1145/1822090.1822140

Teaching abstraction in introductory courses. / Koppelman, Herman; van Dijk, Betsy.
ITiCSE’10: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. Association for Computing Machinery, 2010. p. 174-178.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Teaching abstraction in introductory courses

AU - Koppelman, Herman

AU - van Dijk, Betsy

N1 - Conference code: 15

PY - 2010/6

Y1 - 2010/6

N2 - Abstraction is viewed as a key concept in computer science. It is not only an important concept but also one that is difficult to master. This paper focuses on the problems that novices experience when they first encounter this concept. Three assignments from introductory courses are analyzed, to understand why abstraction is difficult for novices. This analysis leads to a number of guidelines that can be used by instructors to support novices learning abstraction.

AB - Abstraction is viewed as a key concept in computer science. It is not only an important concept but also one that is difficult to master. This paper focuses on the problems that novices experience when they first encounter this concept. Three assignments from introductory courses are analyzed, to understand why abstraction is difficult for novices. This analysis leads to a number of guidelines that can be used by instructors to support novices learning abstraction.

KW - Recursion

KW - Abstraction level

KW - Pedagogy

KW - Abstraction

KW - IR-79611

KW - Computer Science

KW - EWI-21450

U2 - 10.1145/1822090.1822140

DO - 10.1145/1822090.1822140

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-1-60558-820-9

SP - 174

EP - 178

BT - ITiCSE’10

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - 15th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2010

Y2 - 26 June 2010 through 30 June 2010

ER -

Teaching abstraction in introductory courses

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this