Lab-Based Teaching - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 134

Lately (effective from fall 2014), the College Board ( apcentral.collegeboard.
org ) has decided to reinforce the lab component of the AP Computer Science A
course with “a substantial laboratory component in which students design solu-
tions to problems, express their solutions precisely, test their solutions, identify and
correct errors (when mistakes occur), and compare possible solutions.” The course
description emphasizes that although the “course draws heavily upon theory, formal
logic, abstract data structures, and a conceptual understanding of algorithms, stu-
dents also must gain significant experience applying the concepts to tackle a wide
range of problems. As students design data structures and develop algorithms, they
also integrate ideas, test hypotheses, and explore alternative approaches.” Further,
it is also stressed that “activities motivated by real-world applications can provide
insights about how computing can be useful in society, motivate the study of techni-
cal issues, and capture students' interest.”
This chapter focuses on computer science teaching methods that are suitable,
especially, to be employed in the computer lab, and specifically, on the lessons in
the Methods of Teaching Computer Science (MTCS) course that aim to expose the
students to pedagogical usages of the computer lab that target to improve their fu-
ture pupils' understanding of computer science ideas.
One of the main goals of the ideas presented in this chapter is to let the students
realize that the learning of computer science in the computer lab is not limited
to programming tasks. Rather, they, as future computer science teachers, can use
the computer lab in additional ways that further enhance learners' understanding
of computer science. We mention, though, that the usage of the computer lab for
programming tasks is meaningful in order to provide learners with opportunities to
gain some programming experience. In this spirit, the lessons in the MTCS course,
which are dedicated to lab-based learning, highlight the added value of the com-
puter lab for learners' understanding of computer science concepts, beyond the ad-
vancement of their programming skill. This added value includes benefits of proj-
ect-based learning (Sect. 8.7.4) and the conception of the computer lab as a learning
environment in which learners experiment and check hypothesis as recommended
by the College Board (2014). This assertion is based on the constructivist approach
presented in Chap. 2.
This chapter first elaborates on the computer lab as a learning environment and
then presents several lessons that can be facilitated in the MTCS course which ex-
amine, from different perspectives, the role of the computer lab in computer science
teaching and learning processes. Specifically, the following topics are addressed:
• What is a computer lab? (Sect. 8.8.2)
• The lab-first teaching approach (Sect. 8.8.3)
• Visualization and animation (Sect. 8.8.4)
• Using the Internet in the teaching of computer science (Sect. 8.8.5)
Clearly, this is not an exhausting list and additional pedagogical ways exist that fit
to be applied in the computer lab for computer science teaching; they do, however,
represent a variety of usages, from which each instructor of the MTCS course can
choose to address the ones that fit him or her own pedagogical approach.