Innovative Approaches to Teaching Computer Science (Part 1)

What we teach in Computer Science depends a lot on how we think of Computer Science as a discipline. According to Lewis and Smith (2005), the segregationists think that it is mainly problem solving, algorithmic analysis, theory building, and not an art. The integrationists think that it should be driven by what is needed in other computing fields and majors, such as applied computing in bioinformatics, engineering, and only partly by industries. The synergists think it should transcend any discipline where computing concepts can be applied in much broader terms in non-computing specific areas. As an example, the computing concept of pattern matching may be applied to DNA sequence matching initially (synergistic model), but now it is core to DNA analysis in bioinformatics (integration model), and complexity theories may come out of special algorithms in this area (segregation model).

How we teach Computer Science can also be influenced by these three models. One of the synergistic ways of teaching Computer Science is to consider the approaches to teaching in fine arts and how these can be applied to our discipline. Computer Science is traditionally taught in a format that is instructor centered (instructor is the expert, students are the novices), where the subject matter is abstracted from its practical use (toy programs vs. real life applications), and taught in individualized, non-collaborative (to avoid cheating) environment. In contrast, the fine art approach to teaching has a lot more student - student collaboration, student - instructor engagement, etc. (Barker et al. 2005). This is starting to change as we see more Just in Time teaching, use of clicker questions during lectures, pair programming, peer instruction, peer evaluations, in class activities, group projects, two-stage exams, media programming, etc. to increase enrollment and reduce attrition especially for female students in Computer Science. The paper by Barker et al. also has a good background summary on the attrition of women in Computer Science, and how fine arts approach to teaching may help in Computer Science teaching.

An integrative approach to teaching Computer Science can be seen in the paper by Cushing et al. (2009) where he reported an entry level Computer Science course integrated with Computational Linguistics that included case studies, term project, lecture series and seminars. Out of 70 students that completed the course, 24 students went on to the next quarter of Computer Science with several of them not originally intended to. It is not clear how this compares to other years.

References:

Lewis, T. and Smith, W. (June 2005). The Computer Science Debate: It's a Matter of Perspective. The SIGCSE Bulletin. 37(2), pp 80 - 84.

Barker, L. Garvin-Doxas, K., Roberts, E. (February, 2005). What Can Computer Science Learn From a Fine Arts Approach to Teaching? SIGCSE 2005, pp 421 - 425.

Cushing, J., Hastings, R., Walter, B. (2009). CS0++ Broadening Computer Science At The Entry Level: Linguistics, Computer Science, And The Semantic Web. The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Papers of the Sixteenth Annual CCSC Midwestern Conference, October 9 - 10, 2009. pp 135 - 142.