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• Intermediate conclusions that summarize what has been learned so far
should be included in the lab-first worksheet. These conclusions should
not necessarily include formal definitions; however, they should be intui-
tive enough to allow learners go on working on the worksheet. The exact
formal terminology can be presented in the lesson that takes place in the
class after the lab.
• Since the worksheet guides learners to formulate their conclusions based
on what they just observed, each time only one specific conclusion should
be addressed.
• The worksheet should include enough space to enable learners write their
answers on the worksheet. Learners are distracted when asked to read
instructions from a worksheet and to write their answers in their notebook.
• After a concept is introduced in the worksheet, learners should work on
several tasks that employ this concept in order to let them practice what
they have just learned.
• Since learners have different learning rhythms, it is important to provide
advanced learners with advanced tasks to work on when other learners still
study the basic material. This can be done by including at the end of the work-
sheet challenging (advanced) tasks that not all the learners should solve.
• Checking crossroads should be included in a lab-first worksheet. A check-
ing crossroad is an assignment that checks learners' understanding of a
specific concept/topic(s) before they move on studying the next one.
• Following Petre ( 2011 ), it is important to design the lab “thoughtfully
with sufficient degrees of freedom to enable discovery and accommodate
a variety of studies, but not so much freedom that students become dis-
tracted or confused” (p. 19).
• Stage C: Development and analysis of a lab-first worksheet, homework
The students are asked to select a computer science topic and to develop a
worksheet that teaches the selected topic in the lab-first teaching approach.
For each question/task presented in the worksheet, the students should
explain its purpose and the pedagogical principles that guided the task
formulation.
Another topic that can be discussed in the MTCS at this stage is the kinds of ques-
tions that it to be presented to learners in the lab-irst teaching approach. Here are
several kinds of such tasks: analysis of the behavior of a given program, illing in
speciic parts in a given program, or writing a computer program that fulills spe-
ciic requirements. See also Chap. 9 for additional types of questions.
If time allows, additional questions can be addressed and discussed with the
students in the MTCS course: Is it always possible to apply the lab-first teaching
approach? Does this approach fit all learners, all teachers, specific types of learners,
specific types of teachers? What class organizations fit for the lab-first approach
(see Sect. 8.7.3)?
 
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