From Theory to Experiment to Practice in CS Education

In this paper, I will summarize a five-year excursion into computer science education (CSE). The excursion began with a theoretical insight, continued with experimental studies and can now be summarized in suggestions for improving the pedagogy of computer science (CS). The theoretical insight pertained to the applicability of constructivism in CSE: I concluded that students find it difficult to construct viable mental models of computers and software artifacts, because they have no pre-existing models upon which to build. I conjectured that the creation of conceptual models by educators can make it easier to acquire viable mental models, and my graduate students have performed empirical experiments to verify this conjecture. These experiments identified the important features of conceptual models that can guide educators, both teachers and developers of learning material and software.