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Everything I needed to know about teaching I learned in kindergarten: bringing elementary education techniques to undergraduate computer science classes

Published: 03 March 2006 Publication History

Abstract

By expanding the teaching styles used in computer science classrooms, we can expand the audience of students that enjoy and excel in technology. Rather than focusing on major curriculum changes or new programs specifically for non-traditional students, we propose that relatively simple expansions in teaching style can have significant results. In particular, we advocate incorporating teaching techniques reminiscent of kindergarten: games, toys, stories, and play. These techniques promote an active learning environment, level the playing field for non-technical students, provide motivation beyond grades, and make class time fun. In this paper, we want to acknowledge the many activities others have proposed by providing a coherent categorization of such activities and show how to use these techniques throughout the curriculum rather than as special experiences.

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  1. Everything I needed to know about teaching I learned in kindergarten: bringing elementary education techniques to undergraduate computer science classes

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE '06: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
    March 2006
    612 pages
    ISBN:1595932593
    DOI:10.1145/1121341
    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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    Published: 03 March 2006

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    Author Tags

    1. active learning
    2. active teaching
    3. classroom management
    4. curriculum issues
    5. pedagogy

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    Cited By

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    • (2019)The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research10.1017/9781108654555Online publication date: 15-Feb-2019
    • (2017)Folk PedagogyProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3105726.3106192(145-154)Online publication date: 14-Aug-2017
    • (2012)Physical Webbing: Collaborative kinesthetic three-dimensional Mind Maps®Active Learning in Higher Education10.1177/146978741142918513:1(35-49)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2012
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    • (2010)Engaging students in programmingProceedings of the Twelfth Australasian Conference on Computing Education - Volume 10310.5555/1862219.1862230(63-72)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2010
    • (2009)A people-first approach to programmingProceedings of the Eleventh Australasian Conference on Computing Education - Volume 9510.5555/1862712.1862737(171-180)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2009
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