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What should we teach in an introductory programming course?

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David GriesAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 1

Pages 81 - 89

https://doi.org/10.1145/953057.810447

Published: 01 January 1974 Publication History

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Abstract

An introductory course (and its successor) in programming should be concerned with three aspects of programming:

1. How to solve problems,

2. How to describe an algorithmic solution to a problem,

3. How to verify that an algorithm is correct.

I should like to discuss mainly the first two aspects. The third is just as important, but if the first two are carried out in a systematic fashion, the third is much easier than commonly supposed. (Note that the third step is not “debugging,” because the word “debugging” conveys the impression that errors are alright—that they are a natural phenomenon which, like flies in a house, must be found and swatted. If “debugging” was called “getting rid of one's mistakes,” I'm sure most programmers would change their attitude and work harder at producing a correct program initially.)

References

[1]

Conway, R. and D. Gries. An Introduction to Programming, Winthrop Pub., Cambridge, Mass., 1973.

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[2]

Dahl, O.-J., E.W. Dijkstra, and C.A.R. Hoare. Structured Programming. Academic Press, New York, 1972.

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[3]

Descartes, René. Discourse on Method, 1637. Can be found in numerous texts and anthologies in philosophy.

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[4]

Dijkstra, E.W. Notes on Structured Programming. In {2}. This provided the impetus to the current wave of research and articles on the programming process and the structure of programs. Unfortunately, the term "structured programming" is not defined in it! Consequently, different people have different ideas on what the term means. It deserves to be read thoroughly by every programmer.

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[5]

Hyman, R. and B. Anderson. Solving Problems. International Science and Technology (Sept. 1965), 36-41.

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[6]

McCracken, D. Is there a FORTRAN in your future? Datamation (May 1973) 236-237.

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[7]

Poe, Edgar Allen. The Philosophy of Composition. Graham's Magazine, April 1846. (Appears in Stearn (editor), The Portable Poe, Viking Press, 1945. This amazing article describes how Poe wrote The Raven, "step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem." We would call it top-down programming.

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[8]

Polya, G. How to Solve It. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1945. Every instructor in an introductory programming course should read this book.

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[9]

Wirth, N. Systematic Programming: An Introduction. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973.

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Cited By

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Kim YLee CChoi JOh SPark SLaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)Introduction to programming Using CleanProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3587103.3594176(655-655)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3587103.3594176
Gokhale A(2018)Measuring students' attitudes toward information technologyJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3199572.319958633:4(101-102)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3199572.3199586
Hong GYao JMichael CPhillips L(2018)A multilingual and comparative approach to teaching introductory computer programmingJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3199572.319957333:4(4-12)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3199572.3199573
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Index Terms

What should we teach in an introductory programming course?
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

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 6, Issue 1

Proceedings of the 4th SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education

February 1974

195 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/953057

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '74: Proceedings of the fourth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
January 1974
194 pages
ISBN:9781450374835
DOI:10.1145/800183
Chairman:
Douglas S. Kerr

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

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Publication History

Published: 01 January 1974

Published in SIGCSE Volume 6, Issue 1

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Kim YLee CChoi JOh SPark SLaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)Introduction to programming Using CleanProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3587103.3594176(655-655)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3587103.3594176
Gokhale A(2018)Measuring students' attitudes toward information technologyJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3199572.319958633:4(101-102)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3199572.3199586
Hong GYao JMichael CPhillips L(2018)A multilingual and comparative approach to teaching introductory computer programmingJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3199572.319957333:4(4-12)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3199572.3199573
Sharma RShen HGoodwin RDuh HLueg CBillinghust MHuang W(2016)Voluntary participation in discussion forums as an engagement indicatorProceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/3010915.3010967(489-493)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3010915.3010967
Rubiano SLopez-Cruz OSoto E(2015)Teaching computer programmingProceedings of the 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2015.7344184(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2015
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Singhania R(2014)Issues in Teaching the Introductory Course in Computers in Business CurriculumAEDS Journal10.1080/00011037.1980.1100828814:1(45-51)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2014
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Schonberger RFranz L(2014)The Required Business Computing Course: Peer-Group Learning with a Managerial EmphasisAEDS Journal10.1080/00011037.1978.1100822711:3(73-83)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2014
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Kordaki MSiempos H(2011)A Collaborative and Adaptive Design Pattern of the Jigsaw Method within Learning Design-Based E-Learning SystemsTechnology-Enhanced Systems and Tools for Collaborative Learning Scaffolding10.1007/978-3-642-19814-4_11(239-255)Online publication date: 2011
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Bennedsen JCaspersen M(2008)Optimists have more fun, but do they learn better? On the influence of emotional and social factors on learning introductory computer scienceComputer Science Education10.1080/0899340070179113318:1(1-16)Online publication date: Mar-2008
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Whipkey K(1984)Identifying predictors of programming skillACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/382200.38254416:4(36-42)Online publication date: 1-Dec-1984
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