CS2 Pedagogy

When constructing a course, pedagogy and content should reinforce goals. Yet, practices within a course have the potential to send rather different messages than intended. What follows are 7 discussion points:

Discussion Point 1: Content Coverage

It is not important what instructors cover in a course; rather it is important what students learn.

• The content of a lecture may indicate little of what students understand!
• Inclusion of a single lecture on a topic (e.g., ethics, a fifth or sixth sorting algorithm) may have little impact and yield little long-term learning.

Discussion Point 2: Role of Lectures

Many studies show that lecturing is much less effective than active learning in engaging students in material and helping them learn.

• So, why lecture at all?
• If lecture can be useful in certain contexts, then why do labs or group exercises?
• If active learning works best in certain contexts, then why lecture?
• Doing both lecture and active learning on the same material seems inefficient!

Example for another session: A lab-based approach to CS1 and CS2 that emphasizes collaborative learning — 33-47 labs; in one version, I lecture about 4 hours a month

created 23 April 2008 last revised 15 June 2008

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