Jacqui Chetty

Towards a pedagogical design for teaching novice programmers: design-based research as an empirical determinant for success

Research and experience indicates that students enrolled for CS1 often perform poorly. On this basis we propose a pedagogical design for CS1 within the context of South Africa, where students are often under-prepared for the challenges of higher education. The pedagogy was designed and implemented using a design-based research (DBR) approach over a period of two iterative cycles. The outcome of the design research is a set of eight design principles that have been implemented within the local context. Although further research is needed to test the design more rigorously, results to date are promising. Overwhelmingly, students perceived the design to be beneficial to their learning. Further, success rates in the course improved dramatically.

Combatting the War Against Machines: An Innovative Hands-on Approach to Coding

The twenty-first century has been an era of technological advances that has surpassed previous decades. This is largely due to the level of innovation in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation. However, learners are often reluctant to choose computer programming (coding) as a subject due to its perceived difficulty. Nevertheless, it is also well known that learners who are introduced to computer programming at a young age become the computer science university graduates of tomorrow. Learners’ hesitancy towards computer programming is due to the complex, abstract nature of the discipline. To this end, innovative tools are proving useful for learners to overcome such barriers. This chapter provides effective strategies to teach the fundamental concepts of computer programming using robotics, specifically Lego Mindstorms robots. The approach taken is hands-on, student-centred and visual. Learners develop coding solutions through designing and coding real-world problems, visually correcting their imprecisions. This chapter includes learning activities and practical examples from case studies. The inequality of women in the workplace, especially women in IT, is also addressed. A discussion around effective approaches to teaching girls’ coding is included as research indicates that girls’ learning requirements for coding are different to those of boys.