Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach

by Orit Hazzan, Tami Lapidot, Noa Ragonis

Overview

This guide presents both a conceptual framework and detailed implementation guidelines for general computer science (CS) teaching. The content is clearly written and structured to be applicable to all levels of CS education and for any teaching organization, without limiting its focus to instruction for any specific curriculum, programming language or paradigm. Features: presents an overview of research in CS education; examines strategies for teaching problem-solving, evaluating pupils, and for dealing with pupils’ misunderstandings; provides learning activities throughout the book; proposes active-learning-based classroom teaching methods, as well as methods specifically for lab-based teaching; discusses various types of questions that a CS instructor, tutor, or trainer can use for a range of different teaching situations; investigates thoroughly issues of lesson planning and course design; describes frameworks by which prospective CS teachers gain their first teaching experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447166306
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	01/07/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dr. Orit Hazzan is Professor and Head of the Department of Education in Science and Technology at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Dr. Hazzan’s other publications with Springer include Agile Anywhere – Essays on Agile Projects and Beyond (2014) and Agile Software Engineering (2008).

Dr. Tami Lapidot is Executive Manager of Machshava – the Israeli National Center for Computer Science Teachers, Haifa, Israel.

Dr. Noa Ragonis is Head of the Instructional Development Center and a computer science senior lecturer at Beit Berl College, and an adjacent senior lecturer at the Department of Education in Science and Technology, Technion. Dr. Ragonis’ publications include eight computer science high-school textbooks and teachers guides (in Hebrew).

Table of Contents

Introduction.- Active Learning and the Active-Learning-Based Teaching Model.- Overview of the Discipline of Computer Science.- Research in Computer Science Education.- Problem Solving Strategies.- Learners' Alternative Conceptions.- Teaching Methods in Computer Science Education.- Lab-Based Teaching.- Types of Questions in Computer Science Education.- Evaluation.- Teaching Planning.- Integrated View at the MTCS Course Organization: The Case of Recursion.- Getting Experience in Computer Science Education.- Design of a Methods of Teaching Computer Science Course.- High School Computer Science Teacher Preparation Programs.- Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“This book is directed at those who teach computer science (CS) in high schools or undergraduate classrooms. … The authors are all from Israel, and together represent three decades of experience. … this book is a valuable resource for high school and undergraduate teachers of introductory CS courses.” (G. Abramson, ACM Computing Reviews, September, 2011)

From the Publisher