Information Technology Reference
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7.2.5
Classification of Objects and Phenomena from Life
In Sect. 3.7.2, we presented a classification task in the context of computer science
soft ideas (see Activity 17). In this section, we expand the discussion about clas-
sification tasks in general, and about the use of classification tasks in the MTCS
course in particular.
Specifically, we introduce classification as a teaching method in computer sci-
ence education. We concentrate on the classification of objects and phenomena
from real life to support and guide the learners' mental construction of the discussed
computer science concepts. The working assumption is that familiar objects and
phenomena enable learners to concretize computer science concepts which, in later
stages, as is illustrated below, are conceptualized on a higher level of abstraction.
This kind of task relies on the constructivist approach (see Chap. 2), according to
which learners construct their knowledge by a meaningful engagement and active
learning in an environment designed for the specific teaching target.
In the MTCS course, this kind of tasks form a basis for a discussion about the
importance of allowing novices to work with different representations of computer
science concepts in order to support their gradual mental construction. The follow-
ing classification activity (Activity 52) illustrates this notion with respect to control
structures .
Activity 52: Pedagogical Examination of Classification
• Stage A: Classification activity, group work
The activity begins by presenting the students with different objects and
phenomena taken from various sources: music, literature, transportation,
newspapers, and so on (see Fig. 7.3 ). As can be seen, all the examples are
taken from everyday life and experiences, and none of them is taken from
the computing world.
The students are not informed what the topic of the page is.The students
are asked to work in groups and to classify these instances according to
different criteria according to their own choice. Clearly, there is no correct
classification. The students are also asked (a) to expand their classified sets
by adding new instances to each set, (b) to give a title to each set, and (c) to
suggest a title for the whole page. The specific instructions are presented in
Table 7.6 .
• Stage B: Class discussion
After the groups have worked on their classification, each group shares its
categorization with the rest of the class. This process can be performed in
different forms. Here are several suggested forms:
1.
A group presents the instances of a specific set and the whole class
should guess its classification criterion.
 
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