Students in an introductory computing class participated in a study investigating the impact of using a graphics programming environment (Alice) and pair-programming on confidence, enjoyment and achievement. Sixty-four participants completed a short questionnaire and a content pre-test about computer programming concepts. Students were then…

Transformational Events is a new pedagogic pattern that explains how innovations (and other transformations) happened. The pattern is three temporal stages: an interval of increasingly unsatisfactory ad hoc solutions to a persistent problem (the "mess"), an offer of an invention or of a new way of thinking, and a period of widespread adoption and…

In this paper, we present the results from a two-part study. We analyze 60 programs written by novice programmers aged 16-19 after their first programming course, in either Java or Python. The aim is to find difficulties independent of the language used, and such originating from the language. Second, we analyze the transition from a…

Providing adequate computing lab support for Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Science (CS) programs is a perennial challenge for most academic institutions in the US and abroad. Factors, such as lack of physical space, budgetary constraints, conflicting needs of different courses, and rapid obsolescence of computing technology,…

This paper describes the process used by the Computer Information Technology Department at PUC (Purdue University Calumet) during a major curriculum review and revision to implement the curriculum model developed by the SIGITE Curriculum Committee (Curriculum, 2005). The process was based on the learning outcomes set forth by the SIGITE curriculum…

This paper proposes an approach to introducing object-oriented concepts to high school computer science students using the Object-Oriented Turing (OOT) language. Students can learn about basic object-oriented (OO) principles such as classes and inheritance by using and expanding a collection of classes that draw pictures like circles and happy…

This training material provides the reader with information on the installation of and instruction in the use of the on-line Novell Netware V2.15 training software, and consists of an Instructor's Guide and Student Handouts. The instructor's guide includes the following sections: system requirements; installation; starting the tutorial; completing…

This thesis addresses problems from two areas of theoretical computer science. The first area is that of computational learning theory, which is the study of the phenomenon of concept learning using formal mathematical models. The goal of computational learning theory is to investigate learning in a rigorous manner through the use of techniques…

This curriculum guide outlines a course on computer literacy for junior or senior high school students reflecting the technology of the early 1980s. A chart shows computer literacy scope and sequence for students in kindergarten, grades 1-2, grades 3-6, and grades 7-9. Forty lessons for the intermediate grades and high school are then presented,…

These papers describe efforts toward the systematic improvement of a software environment called SOLO (Eisenstadt, 1978), which has been used with cognitive psychology students at the Open University in Great Britain and is geared towards the manipulation of assertional databases. The first paper, by Eisenstadt, Laubsch, and Kahney, provides an…

The average of student evaluations for each section of a computer programming course correlated positively with the average of student performance on a standardized final examination. A multisection method, with randomized assignment of instructors to conditions, was used and an unconfounded comparison between feedback and nonfeedback conditions…

The background of 197 university students from four introductory computer science classes at the State University of New York at Buffalo was investigated to determine factors contributing to academic success or failure in computer science. A background questionnaire, a test of computer science concepts (reading a simple program, symbol…

Four conference papers are reviewed in this introduction to a symposium. The first paper is by Clements and Merriman, who make a case for the reflection of Steinberg's information processing componential model of cognitive processes in the LOGO language and computational environment; present a series of experiments that attempted to tailor the…

Continuing education is an ever increasing requirement for health professionals and technicians. The use of computer assisted and computer terminal accessible modules brings the college into the health facility without the need for actual personnel movements. (Author/NH)