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 › Research › peer-review

2 Citations (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
Subtitle of host publication	March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA
Editors	Tiffany Barnes , Daniel Garcia
Place of Publication	New York, NY
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	135-140
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450346986
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017735
Publication status	Published - 8 Mar 2017
Event	ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) 2017 - Seattle, United States of America Duration: 8 Mar 2017 → 11 Mar 2017 Conference number: 48th https://sigcse2017.sigcse.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3017680 (Proceedings)

Conference

Conference	ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) 2017
Abbreviated title	SIGCSE 2017
Country/Territory	United States of America
City	Seattle
Period	8/03/17 → 11/03/17
Other	The SIGCSE Technical Symposium is the largest computing education conference worldwide organized by ACM SIGCSE. It attracts around 1,300 researchers, educators, and others interested in improving computing education in K-12 and higher education.
Internet address	https://sigcse2017.sigcse.org/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3017680 (Proceedings)

Keywords

Algorithmic thinking
Computational thinking
Computer science education
Edgy
Graphs
High school education
Snap!

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10.1145/3017680.3017735

Cite this

Cox, R., Bird, S., & Meyer, B. (2017). Teaching computer science in the victorian certificate of education: A pilot study. In T. Barnes , & D. Garcia (Eds.), SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA (pp. 135-140). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3017680.3017735

Cox, Richard ; Bird, Steven ; Meyer, Bernd. / Teaching computer science in the victorian certificate of education : A pilot study. SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA. editor / Tiffany Barnes ; Daniel Garcia . New York, NY : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2017. pp. 135-140

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note = "ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) 2017, SIGCSE 2017 ; Conference date: 08-03-2017 Through 11-03-2017",

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Cox, R, Bird, S & Meyer, B 2017, Teaching computer science in the victorian certificate of education: A pilot study. in T Barnes & D Garcia (eds), SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, NY, pp. 135-140, ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) 2017, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 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: March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA. ed. / Tiffany Barnes ; Daniel Garcia . New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2017. p. 135-140.

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

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Cox R, Bird S, Meyer B. Teaching computer science in the victorian certificate of education: A pilot study. In Barnes T, Garcia D, editors, SIGCSE 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education: March 8 -11, 2017, Seattle, WA, USA. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). 2017. p. 135-140 doi: 10.1145/3017680.3017735

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

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