Research in Computer Science Education - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 65

Table 4.2 Worksheet with an introductory problem
A problem
Write an algorithm that returns true if all array A's members are equal and false if they
are not. Array A is of size N (the array indexes are 1-N)
Solve the problem
Keep the drafts you wrote during the process of solution development
When you are finished, put your solutions aside and ask for the next task
Since a solution development to a given problem enables problem solvers
capture the problem domain more meaningfully and differently than check-
ing a solution (see Stage B), the students are asked to solve the problem by
themselves. It is recommended to collect their solutions for the later stages of
the activity (C and E).
• Stage B: Evaluating different solutions, individual work
Usually, teachers design questions to check their pupils' overall understanding;
at the same time, researchers' questions are more refined, as they intend to iden-
tify learners' conceptions, including unexpected ones. This stage intends to let
the students adopt the researcher's point of view. Accordingly, in this stage of
the activity, the students first experience a task that a computer science teacher
performs on a daily basis—determine whether a solution is correct or incor-
rect, and second, practice the researcher's work—looking for the source of the
mistake, i.e., identifying learners' misconception(s)/alternative conception(s).
The students are given six solutions to the above problem and are asked
first to classify them into correct and incorrect solutions and second, for each
incorrect solution, to speculate what might be the source of the mistake; i.e.,
with respect to the (wrong) solutions, to hypothesize what might be the pupils'
misconception(s). See Table 4.3 .
• Stage C: Discussion on Stage B answers, work in pairs
In this stage, the students work in pairs, reflect on their previous work, com-
pare their solutions, discuss and argue, and try to convince each other. It is
hoped that during this experience, they construct a partial mental image of
what researchers in computer science education do.
Specifically, the students are asked to discuss and reflect in pairs on their
classifications of the answers presented in Stage B (Table 4.3 ). In addition,
they are asked to exchange their own solutions from Stage A and check each
other's solution. The specific instructions are presented below:
1. Discuss your conclusions from the previous stage. Compare your answers
and, if needed, elaborate/change/correct them.
2. Exchange with your partner your own solution to the problem. Check your
partner's solution.
− If it is correct: How can you develop your future students' capabilities in
problem-solving processes?
− If it is incorrect: Is it similar to one of the incorrect solutions presented in
the worksheet you worked on (Stage B/Table 4.3 )?