Overview of the Discipline of Computer Science - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 39

paradigm is considered to be a soft idea (see Sect. 3.7 of this chapter), as opposed
to rigid content, such as programming language syntax (Corder 1990 ; Turkle 1984 );
therefore, teaching programming paradigms is not a simple task. For these reasons,
we decided to focus in this guide to the teaching of programming paradigms.
A discussion about the concept of programming paradigm in the MTCS course
has several additional advantages. First, it enables the instructor of the MTCS course
to discuss with the students the meaning of the levels of abstraction (a central com-
puter science concept) within a relatively familiar context, that is, the relations be-
tween programming paradigms and programming languages. Second, since in most
cases, high school computer science curricula are partially based on programming,
the students' familiarity with the concept of programming paradigm, including the
differences and connections between this concept and the concept of programming
language, may increase their awareness in their future teaching to the difference
between technical aspects of programming languages and conceptual computer sci-
ence ideas. Such understanding may help the prospective computer science teachers
teach computer science also on a higher level of abstraction. Third, it may improve
students' understanding of the essence and history of the discipline of computer sci-
ence. Finally, it is reasonable to assume that not all students have learned a course
that focuses on the notion of programming paradigm; the MTCS course can be,
therefore, an appropriate opportunity to partially close this gap.
Activities 13, 14, and 15 that explore the notion of programming paradigm are
relatively advanced; therefore, they should be facilitated in the MTCS course only
with students who have the needed background in computer science. Specifically,
before the activities are facilitated, it is important to verify that the students are
familiar with at least two programming paradigms; if they are not familiar with at
least two programming paradigms, the instructor of the MTCS course may consider
dedicating 1-2 lessons to the teaching of a programming paradigm with which the
students are not familiar. Such lessons will provide the instructor with an additional
opportunity to discuss the differences between programming paradigms with the
students and to reemphasize the fact that programming languages are, in fact, an
expressive mechanism for programming paradigms.
Activity 13: Programming Paradigms—Exploration of Learners' Knowledge
The aim of this activity is to let the instructor of the MTCS course observe
the students' level of familiarity with the concept of programming paradigm.
It should be facilitated, as mentioned above, only after the instructor verifies
that the students are familiar with at least two programming paradigms, or at
least with two programming languages, which represent two different pro-
gramming paradigms.
• Stage A: Worksheet, individual work
The students are asked to work individually on the worksheet presented in
Table 3.3 .
• Stage B: Class discussion
After the students work on this worksheet individually, the instructor
collects their answers and discusses them with the class; when needed,