Facing Computer Science Misconceptions An Introductory Course Based on Historical Strands and Career Paths at a Glance Siegfried Rouvrais and Ioannis Kanellos Telecom Bretagne (Public Eng. School), France
41th ASEE/ IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 2011 Session F4G: Learning Programming Languages Concepts and Methodologies
The French Grande École specificity: 1st year incoming students (freshmen) PhD
"Doctorat"
8 7
PhD
Doctorat « French Diplôme d'ingénieur"
6 Master
Bachelor "Licence"
5
M2
4
M1
3
L3
2
L2
1
“Research Master" or “Professional Master"
Master of Engineering
Master of Science Bachelor
1st Semester in English
Competitive exam Selective preparatory classes (Maths & Physics)
L1
A+
‘K12’ (17 y/o)
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
Admission based on academic records and agreements
European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
Telecom Bretagne ("Grande Ecole")
French Universities
Telecom Bretagne http://www.telecom-bretagne.eu/ • A 3-years “generalist” Master of engineering school: - 1000 students, 45% intl. students from 50+ countries, 160 academics - engineers who fill up the management positions in large companies
• Ranked in Top 15 among 200+ Graduate Engineering Schools in France • Main specialties: - Signal processing, Optics, Electronics, Micro-Waves, Networks, CS, Economics/Humanities
• French CTI and EUR-ACE accredited • CDIO collaborator since 2008 (http://www.cdio.org/) - worldwide initiative: educational framework for engineers page 2
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Freshmen in French Grande Ecole “K12”
graded (or postsecondary) students in France are far from CS essentials… • even if they are passionate young folks (‘self-made’) The same for our incoming students: • 2 years of selective preparatory classes - mostly based on Maths and Physics, rarely CS - position in the national Concours will decide which school to integrate: – electronics, aerospace, civil, telecommunications, etc. – a real choice?
• our freshmen have very poor prior experience … nor of the role CS could play for their future career page 3
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Educational resistance Common 1st semester, 42h per domain, a large project, and then minors/majors (2nd semester)
Some incoming students: • “I definitely do not want to be a SW engineer”, “programming is boring” • self-made “geeks” Stereotyped visions of Computer Science by incoming students • multiple reasons: - everyday practices in using computers - market images and orientations - pressures exerted by other disciplines - millennial classes (Y or “Peter Pan” generation, digital natives) - etc.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Educational challenge (intentions) To
release our students from resistant stereotypes and misconceptions in CS • for instance, that CS amounts to office tools or to obscure source code programming
To
provide means enabling them to participate actively in their own learning path, choose minors/majors
To
contribute to the clarification of their future professional identity beyond common rigid CS values and beliefs
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
How can we teach CS? And what? The
Euro-Inf Framework Standards and Accreditation Criteria • the “underlying conceptual basis for Informatics” are essential in order to satisfy the whole learning outcomes
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
How can we teach CS? And what? The
Euro-Inf Framework Standards and Accreditation Criteria First cycle (like CS1) • knowledge and understanding of the key aspects and concepts of CS, including some at the forefront of that discipline; • awareness of a wide spectrum of CS disciplines.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
How can we teach CS? And what?
The Euro-Inf Framework Standards and Accreditation Criteria
First
cycle • Knowledge, understanding, and awareness Second cycle (like CS2) • profound knowledge and understanding of the CS principles; • either deep knowledge of a chosen specialization or broad knowledge of CS in general; • critical awareness on the forefront of their specialization.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
A 6-years educational experiment at TB, approx. 150 students per year “A
glance at Computer Science”: 21h introductory course, in parallel with a Javabased first programming course (1st semester) A three point of view approach of CS • 1. Foundations • 2. Technologies • 3. Uses
Assessment
(ECTS) • a final written exam • 4 written deliverables by teams of 4
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
(some) Expected Learning Outcomes Distinguish
various perspectives of CS • classify some problem within Support, with arguments, significant evolutions of CS • recognize their impacts on other fields and disciplines • imagine, for some topics gleaned throughout these points of view, what can be made Map the CS school curriculum, including minors, majors and electives • differentiate learning paths in CS Express values of CS in engineering activities • locate potential future professional identities page 10
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure (21 hours): ”CS is not just a question of programming” Opening
• • • •
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phase (short lecture) presentation of the CS as a point of view system, review of the philosophy and the learning outcomes of the course, clarification of the 3 axes and contour schedule and the assessment methods
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure Opening
phase (short lecture) CS theory phase (lecture and workshops) • presentation of the notion of calculus via different points of view (Turing machines, logical, formal, algorithmic and recursive definitions of calculus); - relationships between these definitions
• limits of calculus, • halting problem and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, • rapid introduction to complexity theory (e.g. fundamental problems, P and NP classes) • … page 12
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure
Opening phase (short lecture)
CS
theory phase (lecture and workshops) Computer architecture (lecture and workshops) • survey of early computers and historical overview until today following a pure technological axe, • definition of the von Neumann design model for digital computers, • explications on the role played by the microprocessor, • discussions on Moore’s law, • …
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure
Opening phase (short lecture) CS theory phase (lecture and workshops)
Computer
architecture (lecture and workshops) Programming paradigms (lab and restructuring lecture) • abstraction and efficiency as basic notions for automatic computation, following a user-programmer viewpoint, • reasons underlying distinct programming paradigms and so many programming languages, • examples on the opposition between interpretation and compilation, • synthesis of the history of programming languages • … page 14
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure
Opening phase (short lecture) CS theory phase (lecture and workshops) Computer architecture (lecture and workshops)
Programming
paradigms (lab and restructuring lecture) Human-machine interfaces (lab) • exercices on the importance of HMIs, window-based graphical user interface (e.g. from Xerox Star, SketchPad, to actual WYSIWIG interfaces), • input/output devices, senses, and modalities (history) • presentation of some HMI methods (e.g. design, ergonomic criteria) and tools • … page 15
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure Surveying
career directions (workshop) • under a cooperative learning style, a group session with a tutor: prompt student teams to list and understand CS career opportunities. 1. base groups (around 6) 2. five line definition of “what’s an engineer?” 3. collaborative definition, comparison 4. exhaustive list of jobs 5. conceptual map 6. competency example 7. list of ten pondered core competencies for a job 8. minors/majors booklet analysis
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Course structure
Opening phase (short lecture) CS theory phase (lecture and workshops) Computer architecture (lecture and workshops) Programming paradigms (lab and restructuring lecture) Human-machine interfaces (lab)
Surveying
career directions (workshop) Closing phase (short lecture) • a retrospective presentation of the real limits of computing, technologies and uses, • with an overview on the minor and major courses in the CS or Computer Engineering fields, offered in Telecom Bretagne. page 17
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Results and Evaluation (broad lines, more in the proceedings) A
six year experience that involved about 1000 students • 86% of males, around 22 years old
Feedback
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results were regularly collected
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Results and Evaluation (broad lines, more in the proceedings) About
90% of the teams replied positively to the question: “In your opinion, is it relevant to approach CS through different points of view?”. Systematically: • students recognized open-minded issues • that the course permitted to distinguish the diversity of the discipline • that it clearly pointed out that CS is e.g. not just a question of programming
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Results and Evaluation (broad lines, more in the proceedings)
About 90% of the teams replied positively to the question: “In your opinion, is it relevant to approach CS through different points of view?”.
Approximately
85% of the teams replied negatively to the question: “Do you feel that reviewing CS following an historical approach is waste?”.
page 20
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Results and Evaluation (broad lines, more in the proceedings)
About 90% of the teams replied positively to the question: “In your opinion, is it relevant to approach CS through different points of view?”. Approximately 85% of the teams replied negatively to the question: “Do you feel that reviewing CS following an historical approach is waste?”.
Approximately
75% of the teams replied positively to the question: “Did you clearly identify the views presented in this course?”.
page 21
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Results and Evaluation (broad lines, more in the proceedings)
About 90% of the teams replied positively to the question: “In your opinion, is it relevant to approach CS through different points of view?”. Approximately 85% of the teams replied negatively to the question: “Do you feel that reviewing CS following an historical approach is waste?”. Approximately 75% of the teams replied positively to the question: “Did you clearly identify the views presented in this course?”.
About
65% replied positively to the question: “Thanks to this course, are you able to consider if you are more interested on a view?”. • usability (as programmer or simple user) was often rated; theoretical view was rather depreciated.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Evaluation of the two courses The
majority of students reported that the two interleaved courses (“Programming in Java” and “A glance at CS”) were seen as independent. • some of them would prefer less allocated lessons (7h30 of lectures in the 21h timeframe) or additional exercises and workshops.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Evaluation of the two courses The
majority of students reported that the two interleaved courses (“Imperative Programming” and “A glance at CS”) were seen as independent. 96% of the students found that those two introductory courses were useful for the rest of their curriculum.
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Complementary data and discussion Though
initially reluctant to CS, essentially due to misconceptions and resistant usefulness criteria, some students can develop interest in CS… • … and better understand the relationship between CS and traditional engineering practices, and as such improve their choices of minors and majors.
page 25
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Complementary data and discussion Though
initially reluctant to CS, essentially due to misconceptions and resistant usefulness criteria, some students can develop interest in CS… Many students seem not clearly identify the original intentions of the course.
page 26
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Complementary data and discussion
Though initially reluctant to CS, essentially due to misconceptions and resistant usefulness criteria, some students can develop interest in CS… Many students seem not clearly identify the original intentions of the course.
Student
evaluations, relative to the course values, reveal a clear bimodal distribution • they like it or not, rarely “sit on the fence”!
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Complementary data and discussion Recent
statistics showed that almost 1/3 of our graded students work in some domain of CS (junior alumni).
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ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Conclusion It
will be always a challenge for teachers and educators to find the correct level of CS presentation The question of motivation • Student motivation to learn topics that are not directly, evidently and naively attracted by usefulness (cf. a 126h multidisciplinary introductory project in the 1st semester) • Digital natives specific motivation? - its annoying consequences: difficulty in setting learning goals, “inefficient” or short-term cognitive strategies, weak effort and deficiency of persistence… Our
educational mission is, perhaps, nowadays, to transform extrinsic to intrinsic motivation and to furnish, thus, issues for self-regulated learning. page 29
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
Questions?
ASEE/IEEE FIE 2011 Session F4G
“Facing CS Misconceptions” S. Rouvrais, I. Kanellos
