Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study

Richard Cox; Steven Bird; Bernd Meyer

doi:10.1145/3017680.3017735

Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study

Richard Cox, Steven Bird, Bernd Meyer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper published in Proceedings › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

A new computer science curriculum has been developed for the Victorian Certificate of Education. It gives students direct entry into second year University computer science. The curriculum focuses on data structures and algorithms, with an emphasis on the graph abstract data type and graph algorithms. We taught a pilot course during 2014 involving students from seven schools, and administered an algorithmic thinking quiz on entry and exit, and also tested a first year university reference group. In this paper we present the curriculum and report on the evaluation. We discuss the effectiveness of our approach and make recommendations for improving future versions of the course. Pedagogical issues are discussed in relation to the cognitive education literature on the teaching of algorithmic thinking.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	135-140
Number of pages	6
Edition	1
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450346986
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017735
Publication status	Published - 8 Mar 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	48th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2017 - Seattle, United States Duration: 8 Mar 2017 → 11 Mar 2017

Conference

Conference	48th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2017
Country/Territory	United States
City	Seattle
Period	8/03/17 → 11/03/17

Access to Document

10.1145/3017680.3017735

Cite this

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title = "Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study",

abstract = "A new computer science curriculum has been developed for the Victorian Certificate of Education. It gives students direct entry into second year University computer science. The curriculum focuses on data structures and algorithms, with an emphasis on the graph abstract data type and graph algorithms. We taught a pilot course during 2014 involving students from seven schools, and administered an algorithmic thinking quiz on entry and exit, and also tested a first year university reference group. In this paper we present the curriculum and report on the evaluation. We discuss the effectiveness of our approach and make recommendations for improving future versions of the course. Pedagogical issues are discussed in relation to the cognitive education literature on the teaching of algorithmic thinking.",

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Cox, R , Bird, S & Meyer, B 2017, Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study. in SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 1 edn, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, pp. 135-140, 48th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2017, Seattle, United States, 8/03/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017735

Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study. / Cox, Richard ; Bird, Steven; Meyer, Bernd.
SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 1. ed. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2017. p. 135-140.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper published in Proceedings › peer-review

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Teaching computer science in the Victorian certificate of education: A pilot study

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