Active Learning and Active-Learning-Based Teaching Model - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 16

students to imitate this way in their future computer science classes. To achieve this
goal, the MTCS course should be based on constructivist teaching methods and im-
plement active learning. This approach is important not only because we want the
prospective computer science teachers to enjoy their learning processes and improve
their understanding of computer science concepts, science teaching, and computer
science education (by experiencing a variety of learning/teaching methods), but also
because we want to inspire their future way of teaching in the high school.
This chapter presents an active-learning-based teaching model for implementa-
tion in the MTCS course. This model is used in this guide in most of the offered
activities.

2.2 Active Learning

Confucius (551 BC—479 BC) once said:
I hear and I forget,
I see and I remember,
I do and I understand.

Active learning is widely accepted nowadays as a quality form of education. Among
the many descriptions of active learning, we highlight Silberman's assertion ( 1996 )
according to it “Above all, students need to 'do it'—figure things out by them-
selves, come up with examples, try out skills, and do assignments that depend on the
knowledge they already have or must acquire.” Active learning is closely related to
inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, and project-based learning, which
are all highly suitable approaches 1 for computer science learning in general and for
the MTCS course in particular.
According to constructivist educators (Kilpatrick 1987 ; Davis et al. 1990 ; Con-
frey 1995 ), learning is an active acquisition of ideas and knowledge construction,
rather than a passive process. In other words, learning requires the individual to be
active and to be engaged in the construction of one's own mental models. As follows
from the above quote by the famous Chinese philosopher, the more active learners
are, the more meaningful is their understanding of what they learn. Therefore, in
the design of the MTCS course, we propose educators to encourage “learners to be
active in their relationship with the material to be learned” (Newman et al. 2003 ).
There are numerous ways to implement active learning in computer science edu-
cation (see, e.g., Whittington 2004 ; Ludi 2005 ; McConnell 2005 ; Anderson et al.
2007 ; Gehringer and Miller 2009 ; Walker 2011 ; Zimundi 2012 ). McConnell ( 1996 ),
for example, suggests several techniques, such as modified lectures, algorithm trac-
ing, and software demonstration. In this spirit, this guide is based on the implemen-
tation of the active-learning-based teaching approach by offering a wide collection
of activities to be implemented in the MTCS course in the context of computer
science education.

1 A good resource on active learning, including different types of activities, can be found in http://
www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/active/what/index.html**