Types of Questions in Computer Science Education - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 178

cess of question preparation should be included in CS teacher preparation programs.
Though an entire course can be dedicated to aspects related to question preparation
in different stages of the teaching processes, we present here only the main stages
of the preparation process of a question to be used in a CS class.
1. Planning : We lay out questions that CS teachers should ask and answer in the
process of question planning:
− What is the target of the question?
− What does the question intend to examine?
− What knowledge and skills are students supposed to possess in order to solve the
question?
− Does the previous learning process enable students to acquire those skills?
− Does the previous learning process include the needed knowledge?
− What is the level of abstraction needed to solve the problem?
− Is the question varied from other questions presented so far in the class?
2. Solving : Teachers must solve any question before presenting it to the learners.
It is important for any question, but especially necessary in the process of test
preparation (see Chap. 10). Indeed, there are questions that look simple, but turn
out to be difficult. Until a complete solution is presented, one cannot be sure that
the question fits its purpose as well as the other aspects presented in the planning
stage. If possible, it is recommended to ask a colleague to read at least the ques-
tion formulation and verify that the question is understandable, clear, and not
ambiguous. When the answer is based on code writing, it is necessary to run it
on the computer and check that it works properly.
3. Estimation of the needed time to solve the question : Time is a crucial resource
in teaching processes. Therefore, teacher should estimate the time required by
learners to solve any particular question, which is usually longer than the time
required by the teacher to solve it. The time estimation in this context relies on
different factors, such as the effort involved in reading, planning, and writing the
answer to the question. If a specific question turns out to be time consuming, it
is important to remember that, in most cases, a different type of question, that
requires less effort and meets the same pedagogical targets, can be developed.
The target of Activities 78 and 79 is to train the students in question design of differ-
ent types. Additional activities about evaluation in general and about test prepara-
tion in particular are presented in Chap. 10.
Activity 78: Question Design, Individual Work or Group Work
All students/groups are directed to focus on one specific CS subject, such as,
the loop or differences between indices and values of array cells. In addition,
for each student/group, one type of question is assigned. Then, each student/
group composes a question of that specific type related to the specified CS
subject. The students can exchange the questions to get feedback, and based
on it to improve the questions formulation.