As new technological developments continue to change the educational landscape, it is not an exception in the area of proof and proving. This classroom note introduces the use of one of the trending proofs assistants -- the Lean theorem prover. We first provide a technical account of Lean, then exemplify Lean proofs in propositional logic, number…

Programming is becoming increasingly common in mathematics degrees as it is a desirable skill for new graduates. However, research shows that its use is mostly restricted to computational or modelling tasks. This paper reports a study on students' perceptions of and difficulties with Lean, an interactive theorem prover introduced as part of a…

Concurrency is often perceived as difficult by students. One reason for this may be due to the fact that abstractions used in concurrent programs leave more situations undefined compared to sequential programs (e.g., in what order statements are executed), which makes it harder to create a proper mental model of the execution environment. Students…

This exploratory study reports on characteristics of proof production and proof writing observed in the work of first-year university students who took part in workshops on the theorem prover LEAN (https://leanprover.github.io). These workshops were voluntary and offered alongside a transition to proof module in a UK university. Through…

Background: Conceptual models are an essential phase in software design, but they can create confusion and reduced performance for students in Database Design courses. Objective: A novel Relational Data Model Validation Tool (MVTool) was developed and tested to determine (1) if students who use MVTool perform better than those who do not, and (2)…

The literature provides multiple measures of diversity along a single demographic dimension, but when it comes to studying the interaction of multiple diversity types (e.g. age, gender, and race), the field of useable measures diminishes. We present the use of decision trees as a machine learning technique to automatically identify the…

Programming is an essential skill that many computing students are expected to master. However, programming can be difficult to learn. Successfully interpreting compiler error messages (CEMs) is crucial for correcting errors and progressing toward success in programming. Yet these messages are often difficult to understand and pose a barrier to…