Availability of these tools has virtually eliminated student copying of assignments. This paper reports on an exploratory study designed to explore the relationship between the quality of students' algorithm development and the quality of their final programs. By videotaping pairs of students engaged in writing a program to solve a problem the process used by students could be examined and its relationship to program quality investigated. The results of the study show a clear positive relationship between the quality of algorithm development and the quality of programs written by students in an introductory programming course. In this paper we propose our ideas about didactic methods and a few examples appropriate to motivate in students the comprehension of the basic principles related to algorithm complexity.
Emphasis is put on avoiding formalisms and presenting gradually every new concepts.
This article presents a model computer, titled MPC1, specifically designed for the beginning student. Though limited in scope, it allows students to concentrate on basic principle rather than having to worry about the many physical and logical details of a more powerful computer. It has been used successfully for seven semesters at Massachusetts Bay Community College, three semesters at the University of South Florida, and will soon be introduced in a model classroom at Arapaho Community College which deals with epistemic games for knowledge construction. Return to Table of Contents for Vol.