Bandwagons considered harmful, or the past as prologue in curriculum change

ABSTRACT

The field of computer science changes rapidly, and this change occurs as well in the introductory curriculum. Formerly advanced topics filter down to the first year, and even to secondary school; some topics disappear completely. These changes are good---they indicate a dynamic discipline and a still-emerging picture of the field's fundamental principles. But we must not let our revolutionary zeal blind us to the pedagogical need and conceptual value of time-tested material. Many topics and approaches that are well understood and now unfashionable should retain their place in the introductory curriculum, where they serve as intellectual ballast, foundation, and motivation for the more current and trendier content. We argue here for balance: that radical change be tempered by an appreciation for the place of long-standing approaches and underlying fundamentals. Those advocating curricular change must articulate their educational goals fully and consider explicitly what effect on those goals they expect the change to have; they must not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

REFERENCES

• 1: [1] Knuth, D. E., The Art of Computer Programming, vol. 1, Fundamental Algorithms (Addison-Wesley 1968, second edition 1973).
• 2: Kathleen Jensen , Niklaus Wirth , P. Brinch Hansen , D. Gries , C. Moler , G. Seegmüller , N. Wirth , G. Goos , J. Hartmanis, PASCAL user manual and report, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York, NY, 1974
• 3: Harold Abelson , Gerald Jay Sussman , Julie Sussman, Structure and interpretation of computer programs, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985
• 4: Edsger W. Dijkstra, Letters to the editor: go to statement considered harmful, Communications of the ACM, v.11 n.3, p.147-148, March 1968 [doi>10.1145/362929.362947]
• 5: Donald E. Knuth, Structured Programming with go to Statements, ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), v.6 n.4, p.261-301, Dec. 1974 [doi>10.1145/356635.356640]
• 6: Richard E. Pattis, The “procedures early” approach in CS 1: a heresy, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.25 n.1, p.122-126, March 1993
• 7: [7] Astrachan, O. L. (panel moderator), "Computer Science: The First Year Beyond Language Issues," SIGCSE Bulletin vol. 28 no. 1, pg. 389 (March 1996); additional materials available at http://www.cs.duke.edu/~ola/slides/lang96.html

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance