research-article

Teaching an object-oriented CS1 -: with Python

Authors:

Michael H. Goldwasser,

David LetscherAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 40, Issue 3

Pages 42 - 46

https://doi.org/10.1145/1597849.1384285

Published: 30 June 2008 Publication History

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate regarding the role of object orientation in the introductory programming sequence. While the pendulum swings to and fro between the "objects first" and "back to basics" extremes, there is general agreement that object-oriented programming is central to modern software development and therefore integral to a computer science curriculum. Developing effective approaches to teach these principles raises challenges that have been exacerbated by the use of Java or C++ as the first instructional language.

In this paper, we recommend Python as an excellent choice for teaching an object-oriented CS1. Although often viewed as a "scripting" language, Python is a fully object-oriented language with a consistent object model and a rich set of built-in classes. Based upon our experiences, we describe aspects of the language that help support a balanced introduction to object orientation in CS1. We also discuss the downstream effects on our students' transition to Java and C++ in subsequent courses.

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Index Terms

Teaching an object-oriented CS1 -: with Python
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages

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Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 40, Issue 3

ITiCSE '08

September 2008

362 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1597849

Issue’s Table of Contents

ITiCSE '08: Proceedings of the 13th annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
June 2008
394 pages
ISBN:9781605580784
DOI:10.1145/1384271
Conference Chairs:
June Amillo
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
,
Cary Laxer
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Ernestina Menasalvas
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
,
Alison Young
Unitec, New Zealand

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

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: 30 June 2008

Published in SIGCSE Volume 40, Issue 3

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1109/CSCI58124.2022.00356
Kaboudian AVelasco-Perez HIravanian SShiferaw YCherry EFenton F(2019)A Comprehensive Comparison of GPU Implementations of Cardiac Electrophysiology ModelsFrom Reactive Systems to Cyber-Physical Systems10.1007/978-3-030-31514-6_2(9-34)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31514-6_2
Avouris NJohn KGrammati PStefanos GChristos D(2018)Introduction to computingProceedings of the 22nd Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics10.1145/3291533.3291549(64-69)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3291533.3291549
Alzahrani NVahid FEdgcomb ANguyen KLysecky RBarnes TGarcia DHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones M(2018)Python Versus C++Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3159450.3160586(86-91)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
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Wainer JXavier E(2018)A Controlled Experiment on Python vs C for an Introductory Programming CourseACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/315289418:3(1-16)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2018
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Miller CSettle ALalor JSettle ASteinbach TBoisvert D(2015)Learning Object-Oriented Programming in PythonProceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2808006.2808017(59-64)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2015
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Dillon EWilliams BAjayi ABright ZKimble-Brown QRogers CLewis MEsema JClinkscale BWilliams K(2021)Evaluating Face-to-Face vs.Virtual Pedagogical Coding Review Sessions in the CS classroom: An HBCU Case Study2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)10.1109/RESPECT51740.2021.9620586(1-5)Online publication date: 23-May-2021
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