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7
Teaching Methods in Computer Science
Education
Abstract
This chapter presents active-learning-based teaching methods that computer
science educators can employ in the classroom. The purpose of this chapter is
first, to let the students in the Methods of Teaching Computer Science (MTCS)
course experience a variety of teaching methods before becoming computer sci-
ence teachers; second, to discuss, together with the students, the advantages and
disadvantages of these teaching methods; and third, to demonstrate high school
teaching situations in which it is appropriate to employ these teaching methods.
Within this chapter, we discuss (a) pedagogical tools: games, the CS-unplugged
approach, rich tasks, concept maps, classification, and metaphors; (b) different
forms of class organization; and (c) mentoring software project development.
7.1
Introduction
This chapter presents active-learning-based teaching methods that computer sci-
ence educators can employ in their classroom (see Chap. 2). We focus on nontradi-
tional methods in order to encourage computer science educators to employ these
methods in their classes.
In the context of the Methods of Teaching Computer Science (MTCS) course,
the purpose of this chapter is first, to let the students experience a variety of teaching
methods before becoming computer science teachers; second, to discuss advantages
and disadvantages of these teaching methods; third, to demonstrate high school
teaching situations in which it is appropriate to employ these teaching methods; and
finally, to vary the teaching methods employed in the course. Since, in most cases,
the activities carried out in the MTCS course focus on a specific computer science
topic, they also provide the prospective computer science teachers with additional
opportunity to improve their own understanding of computer science concepts.
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