Reflections on the Teaching of Programming

For50years,wehavebeenteachingprogramming.Inthattime,wehaveseen- mentouschanges.Fromteachinga?rstcourseusinganassemblylanguageorF- tran I to using sophisticated functional and OO programming languages. From computerstouchedonlybyprofessionaloperatorstocomputersthatchildrenplay with. From input on paper tape and punch cards, with hour-long waits for o- put from computer runs, to instant keyboard input and instant compilation and execution.Fromdebuggingprogramsusingpages-longoctaldumpsofmemoryto sophisticateddebuggingsystemsembeddedinIDEs.Fromsmall,toyassignments to ones that inspire because of the ability to include GUIs and other supporting software. From little knowledge or few theories of the programming process to structured programming, stepwise re?nement, formal development methodo- gies based on theories of correctness, and software engineering principles. And yet, teaching programming still seems to be a black art. There is no consensus on what the programming process is, much less on how it should be taught. We do not do well on teaching testing and debugging. We have debates notonlyonwhether toteachOO?rstbutonwhether it can be taught?rst.This muddled situation manifests itself in several ways. Retention is often a problem. Our colleaguesin other disciplines expect students to be able to programalmost anything after a course or two, and many complain that this does not happen. In some sense, we are still ?oundering, just as we were 50 years ago. Part of the problem may be that we are not sure what we are teaching. Are we simply providing knowledge, or are we attempting to impart a skill? Many introductorytextsareorientedatteachingprograms ratherthanprogramming theycontainlittle materialonthe programmingprocessandonproblemsolving.

Autorentext
Michael Kölling ist einer der Entwickler von Greenfoot einer preisgekrönten Lernumgebung für Programmieranfänger. Er lehrt zurzeit an der University of Kent in Canterbury.

Inhalt
Issues in Introductory Programming Courses.- to Part I Issues in Introductory Programming Courses.- Exposing the Programming Process.- Apprentice-Based Learning Via Integrated Lectures and Assignments.- Experiences with Functional Programming in an Introductory Curriculum.- Learning Programming with the PBL Method Experiences on PBL Cases and Tutoring.- Using On-Line Tutorials in Introductory IT Courses.- Introducing Object-Oriented Programming.- to Part II Introducing Object-Oriented Programming.- Transitioning to OOP/Java A Never Ending Story.- Using BlueJ to Introduce Programming.- Model-Driven Programming.- CS1: Getting Started.- Teaching Software Engineering Issues.- to Part III Teaching Software Engineering Issues.- Experiences with a Focus on Testing in Teaching.- Teaching Software Development Using Extreme Programming.- Frameworks in Teaching.- Assessment.- to Part IV Assessment.- Active Learning and Examination Methods in a Data Structures and Algorithms Course.- Mini Project Programming Exams.