Abstract

MINOS FAYAD, Alejandro. Using Inductive Teaching Strategies in an Introductory Structured Programming Course. Rev. Fac. Cienc. Tecnol. [online]. 2016, n.39, pp.149-173. ISSN 0121-3814.

Programing in computer science careers is approached as an end in itself in the subjects that study the techniques, or as a part of other subjects, in which specific algorithms are analyzed. Thus, the study of programing techniques becomes a cross-curricular and structuring element for these careers' plans of study. Therefore, attention should be paid to the work with strategies designed to motivate students and maximize their learning. Likewise, it is necessary to perform activities that provide opportunities for students to experiment and analyze results in order to come up with workable solutions. Inductive strategies make it possible to analyze, discuss and generalize properties or procedures, which are first studied in particular cases properly defined. In programming, these strategies must be approached from a program the classroom activity will be based upon. This study inquired, through open-ended questions, about students' attitude towards inductive learning strategies. The sample was composed by a group of students from Computer Programming I, a subject matter from a Computer Science Diploma. The strategies focused on a number of activities carried out during the academic year. In all cases, the use of program coding in Java, its implementation, analysis and discussion of findings were the result of classroom work. It was concluded that most of students in the group were more interested and had a positive attitude towards inductive activities than towards deductive ones. It was confirmed that they prefer dealing with examples and particular cases from the beginning, rather than addressing general concepts to be learned, their features and properties, and finally focusing on particular cases. Furthermore, it was ratified that it is more difficult trying to understand deductively-addressed contents than those that were addressed inductively.

Keywords : Didactics; computer science; inductive methods; computer programming languages; teaching.

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