Teaching Computing

A Practitioner's Perspective

Henry M. Walker

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351978033
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming Games
• Index: Computer Science

Teaching can be intimidating for beginning faculty. Some graduate schools and some computing faculty provide guidance and mentoring, but many do not. Often, a new faculty member is assigned to teach a course, with little guidance, input, or feedback. Teaching Computing: A Practitioner's Perspective addresses such challenges by providing a solid resource for both new and experienced computing faculty. The book serves as a practical, easy-to-use resource, covering a wide range of topics in a collection of focused down-to-earth chapters.

Based on the authors' extensive teaching experience and his teaching-oriented columns that span 20 years, and informed by computing-education research, the book provides numerous elements that are designed to connect with teaching practitioners, including:

• A wide range of teaching topics and basic elements of teaching, including tips and techniques
• Practical tone; the book serves as a down-to-earth practitioners' guide
• Short, focused chapters
• Coherent and convenient organization
• Mix of general educational perspectives and computing-specific elements
• Connections between teaching in general and teaching computing
• Both historical and contemporary perspectives

This book presents practical approaches, tips, and techniques that provide a strong starting place for new computing faculty and perspectives for reflection by seasoned faculty wishing to freshen their own teaching.

Contents

Preface

PART I Introduction

PART II Curricular Development

CHAPTER 1 ■ Eight principles of an undergraduate curriculum

CHAPTER 2 ■ Prerequisites: Shaping the computing curriculum

CHAPTER 3 ■ When is a computing curriculum bloated?

CHAPTER 4 ■ Hill-climbing with curricula and courses

CHAPTER 5 ■ Developing a useful curricular map

CHAPTER 6 ■ Selected/Annotated references for curricular development

PART III Courses and the Computing Curricula in Context

CHAPTER 7 ■ An historical view of computing curricula

CHAPTER 8 ■ Connecting computer science with other disciplines and the wider community

CHAPTER 9 ■ The role of programming in introductory computing courses

CHAPTER 10 ■ Motivating students and working with gifted students

CHAPTER 11 ■ Capstone-, research-, and project-experiences

CHAPTER 12 ■ Selected/annotated references for courses and curricula in context

PART IV Curricular Issues

CHAPTER 13 ■ Staying connected with the big picture

CHAPTER 14 ■ Balancing the forest and the trees in courses

CHAPTER 15 ■ Guided reading and seminar issues

CHAPTER 16 ■ Writing with the computer science curriculum

CHAPTER 17 ■ College courses of varying credit

PART V Computing and Mathematics

CHAPTER 18 ■ Mathematics and compuitng topics in the classroom

CHAPTER 19 ■ An opportunity for computing-mathematics dialog

CHAPTER 20 ■ Beyond the cliche: mathematical fluency in the computing curriculum

CHAPTER 21 ■ Why a required course on theory?

CHAPTER 22 ■ Some strategies when teaching theory courses

CHAPTER 23 ■ Lessons from the CUPM

CHAPTER 24 ■ Selected/Annotated references for relationships between computing and mathematics

PART VI In the Classroom: Basics, Lab-based, Active Learning, Flipped Classrooms

CHAPTER 25 ■ Basic do’s and don’ts in the classroom: General environment and course suggestions

CHAPTER 26 ■ Basic do’s and don’ts in the classroom: Combating bias, making presentations, and developing slides

CHAPTER 27 ■ Lab layouts for individual and collaborative class sessions

CHAPTER 28 ■ Lab-based courses with the 3 c’s: content, collaboration, and communication

CHAPTER 29 ■ Active learning and/or flipped classrooms

CHAPTER 30 ■ Combining technical depth, social/ethical issues, and active student involvement

CHAPTER 31 ■ Selected/annotated references for course formats

PART VII Preparing a Course

CHAPTER 32 ■ Planning and organizing a course for the first time

CHAPTER 33 ■ Course planning: the day-to-day schedule

CHAPTER 34 ■ Utilizing student class preparation to promote active learning in class

CHAPTER 35 ■ What should be in a syllabus?

CHAPTER 36 ■ The role of textbooks and multimedia

CHAPTER 37 ■ Course development utilizing student-faculty collaboration

PART VIII Instructors’ Roles, Inside and Outside the Classroom

CHAPTER 38 ■ Teacher as coach, mentor, listener (part 1?)

CHAPTER 39 ■ What teachers should, can, and cannot do

CHAPTER 40 ■ Thoughts about lecturing

CHAPTER 41 ■ Teaching and a sense of the dramatic

CHAPTER 42 ■ Teaching and a sense of the dramatic, act ii

CHAPTER 43 ■ Thoughts on student feedback to help teaching

CHAPTER 44 ■ Selected/annotated references for the role of teachers in the classroom

PART IX Exercises and Assignments

CHAPTER 45 ■ Homework assignments and Internet sources

CHAPTER 46 ■ A racquetball-volleyball simulation

CHAPTER 47 ■ The balance between programming and other assignments

CHAPTER 48 ■ Finding interesting examples and assignments for CS1 and CS2

CHAPTER 49 ■ Academic honesty in the classroom

CHAPTER 50 ■ Exercise solutions: motivations, messages sent, and possible distribution

PART X tudent Progress in Courses

CHAPTER 51 ■ Structuring student work

CHAPTER 52 ■ Encouraging student preparation for class

CHAPTER 53 ■ Mid-course corrections

CHAPTER 54 ■ Recovering from disappointing test results

CHAPTER 55 ■ Selected/annotated references for student progress in courses

PART XI Assessment and Grading

CHAPTER 56 ■ Notes on grading

CHAPTER 57 ■ Grading and the allocation of points

CHAPTER 58 ■ Selected/annotated references for assessment and grading

PART XII Outreach and Public Relations

CHAPTER 59 ■ Advertising and recruiting

CHAPTER 60 ■ Course descriptions and public relations for computer science

CHAPTER 61 ■ Resolved: ban ‘programming’ from introductory computing courses

CHAPTER 62 ■ What image do CS1/CS2 present to our students?

CHAPTER 63 ■ Computing teaching labs can communicate negative messages

CHAPTER 64 ■ Do computer games have a role in the computing classroom?

PART XIII Additional Topics

CHAPTER 65 ■ Sorting algorithms: when the Internet gives out lemons, organize a course festival

CHAPTER 66 ■ 1000 (binary) thoughts for developing and using examples

CHAPTER 67 ■ How to prepare students for lifelong learning

CHAPTER 68 ■ How to challenge students

CHAPTER 69 ■ Wellness and the classroom

CHAPTER 70 ■ Selected/annotated references for additional topics

Bibliography

Index

Preface

In the airport, after attending the 2016 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2016) in Memphis, I talked with an attendee who commented that many conference sessions seemed focused on computing-education research. Although these sessions were of some interest, he wanted practical ideas he could implement immediately in the classroom. What tips, techniques, examples, exercises, approaches, etc. can he use to address everyday challenges and to improve his teaching? In principle, he could work his way through volumes of proceedings from SIGCSE symposia, ITiCSE conferences, ICER workshops, and CCSC regional conferences, but digesting the full range of conference and research articles takes much time — even if he could acquire that range of materials.

Figure 1 Book Elements Word Cloud

For beginning faculty, starting to teach can be even more intimidating. Some graduate schools and some computing faculty provide guidance and mentoring, but many do not. Often a new faculty member is assigned to teach a course and then left on their own to put the course together. Sometimes the new faculty member can find materials from a previous instance of the course; sometimes an experienced faculty member may be teaching another section of the same course. However, much of the time, the new faculty must construct the course with little input, experience, or feedback. Further, the new faculty member likely does not know the computing-education literature and does not know where to begin.

This book addresses these issues by providing a solid resource for both new and experienced computing faculty. The book serves as a practical, easy-to-use resource, covering a wide range of topics in a collection of focused down-to-earth articles.

Motivating Vision for this Book

New computing faculty need a way to get started in their teaching, and on-going faculty want to improve. This book addresses these needs by building upon the 50 + teaching-oriented columns I have written for the SIGCSE Bulletin and ACM Inroads ¹ , adding several additional articles and selected annotated references.

Over the years, I have observed that many new college faculty, recently graduated with Ph.D.s from research-oriented universities, often have rather little teaching experience. Some graduate schools provide teaching experience and feedback to their graduate students, but others do not. Thus, many new computing faculty have meager background regarding teaching. They may be eager to learn, but they may have difficulty finding a place to start. Also, mid-career computer science faculty may have gained experience about effective teaching, but feedback and discussion sometimes may be lacking.

Between 1997 and 2009, I wrote columns on Classroom Issues for the SIGCSE Bulletin, with a pieces normally appearing twice a year in June and December. In 2010, the extended format of the SIGCSE Bulletin shifted to a new ACM magazine, called Inroads, at which time I wrote columns on curricula (Curricular Syncopations) appearing in June and December, and columns on in-class teaching (Classroom Vignettes) appearing in March and September. Altogether, between 1997 and March 2017, I have written over 50 featured columns. Feedback from the editors suggests that these articles are very well received by readers — computing educators.

Putting these two themes together, this book provides practical, down-to-earth suggestions, observations, and perspectives for computing teachers. Although a complete book on all aspects of teaching, including practices and a full range of cutting-edge research results, would require several volumes and likely overwhelm many practicing teachers, a modest, one-volume resource on practical approaches, tips, and techniques could provide a strong starting place for new computing faculty. The envisioned volume covers many basic elements, but follows an approach that is not intimidating for beginners.

Key Features of the Book

This book has numerous elements designed to connect with teaching practitioners.

• Wide range of teaching topics: A classroom teacher must address questions on many levels, such as:
  • How does a course fit into the broader curriculum?
  • How will topics be organized?
  • What materials will be given to students (e.g., syllabi, readings, examples, textbooks, etc.)?
  • What class format should be used (e.g., lectures, small/large groups, labs, etc.)?
  • How might students be encouraged to engage with the material?
  • What homework, exercises, tests, projects., etc. will students be given?
  • How will students be assessed?
  Although a comprehensive review of all teaching topics would fill volumes, this book discusses many of these basic elements of teaching.
• Practical tone: The book serves as a down-to-earth practitioners guide. Although discussions ar...