research-article

A systematic approach to teaching abstraction and mathematical modeling

Authors:

Charles T. Cook,

Svetlana Drachova,

Jason O. Hallstrom,

Joseph E. Hollingsworth,

David P. Jacobs,

Joan Krone,

Murali SitaramanAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '12: Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Pages 357 - 362

https://doi.org/10.1145/2325296.2325378

Published: 03 July 2012 Publication History

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Abstract

The need for undergraduate CS students to create and understand mathematical abstractions is clear, yet these skills are rarely taught in a systematic manner, if they are taught at all. This paper presents a systematic approach to teaching abstraction using rigorous mathematical models and a web-based reasoning environment. It contains a series of representative examples with varying levels of sophistication to make it possible to teach the ideas in a variety of courses, such as introductory programming, data structures, and software engineering. We also present results from our experimentation with these ideas over a 3-year period at our institution in a required course that introduces object-based software development, following CS2.

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Cited By

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Hegade PNetekal MShettar A(2023)Effectiveness of Abstraction in Problem Based Learning Knowledge Construction2023 2nd Edition of IEEE Delhi Section Flagship Conference (DELCON)10.1109/DELCON57910.2023.10127438(1-6)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/DELCON57910.2023.10127438
Devathasan KBerg CDamian DHenz MLerner B(2022)The Role of Abstraction in Introductory ProgrammingProceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E10.1145/3563767.3568125(7-13)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563767.3568125
Du HXing WZhang Y(2022)Misconception of Abstraction: When to Use an Example and When to Use a Variable?Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3501709.3544276(28-29)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501709.3544276
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Index Terms

A systematic approach to teaching abstraction and mathematical modeling
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
      2. Model curricula

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Published In

ITiCSE '12: Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

July 2012

424 pages

ISBN:9781450312462

DOI:10.1145/2325296

Conference Chairs:
Tami Lapidot
Technion, Israel
,
Judith Gal-Ezer
The Open University, Israel
,
Program Chairs:
Michael E. Caspersen
Aarhus University, Denmark
,
Orit Hazzan
Technion, Israel

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 03 July 2012

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ITiCSE '12

Sponsor:

Bilkent University
SIGCSE

ITiCSE '12: Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

July 3 - 5, 2012

Haifa, Israel

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Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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Hegade PNetekal MShettar A(2023)Effectiveness of Abstraction in Problem Based Learning Knowledge Construction2023 2nd Edition of IEEE Delhi Section Flagship Conference (DELCON)10.1109/DELCON57910.2023.10127438(1-6)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/DELCON57910.2023.10127438
Devathasan KBerg CDamian DHenz MLerner B(2022)The Role of Abstraction in Introductory ProgrammingProceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E10.1145/3563767.3568125(7-13)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3563767.3568125
Du HXing WZhang Y(2022)Misconception of Abstraction: When to Use an Example and When to Use a Variable?Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3501709.3544276(28-29)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501709.3544276
Statter DArmoni M(2020)Teaching Abstraction in Computer Science to 7th Grade StudentsACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/337214320:1(1-37)Online publication date: 27-Jan-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3372143
Szabo C(2020)Perspectives of Final Year Students on Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems and Their Properties2020 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI)10.1109/SSCI47803.2020.9308401(86-93)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/SSCI47803.2020.9308401
Zehetmeier DBottcher AThurner VBruggemann-Klein A(2020)A Concept for Addressing Abstract Thinking Competence While Teaching Software Development2020 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125128(364-373)Online publication date: Apr-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125128
Fowler MCook MPlis KSchwab TSun YSitaraman MHallstrom JHollingsworth JHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online ToolProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287401(1039-1045)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
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Waite JCurzon PMarsh WSentance SHadwen-Bennett A(2018)Abstraction in action: K-5 teachers' uses of levels of abstraction, particularly the design level, in teaching programming.International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools10.21585/ijcses.v2i1.232:1(14-40)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2018
https://doi.org/10.21585/ijcses.v2i1.23
Heym WSivilotti PBucci PSitaraman MPlis KHollingsworth JKrone JSridhar N(2017)Integrating Components, Contracts, and Reasoning in CS Curricula with RESOLVE: Experiences at Multiple Institutions2017 IEEE 30th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T)10.1109/CSEET.2017.40(202-211)Online publication date: Nov-2017
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Gomes AMendes AMarcelino M(2015)Computer Science Education ResearchInnovative Teaching Strategies and New Learning Paradigms in Computer Programming10.4018/978-1-4666-7304-5.ch001(1-29)Online publication date: 2015
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-7304-5.ch001
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