We are engaged in teaching technical material, specifically computer science, to a large number of undergraduates (400--500), the majority of whom are non-science majors.Many of these students have trouble learning the course material. We are not here talking about those few students who are affected by such problems as physical handicaps or other specific learning disabilities; non are we concerned with those individuals who exhibit poor study habits or strong preferences for unusual "favored modes of perception" [WEIN]. We are concerned with the significant number of students who, for no apparent reason, have a great deal of difficuly learning elementary computer concepts. Why do some never understand? Why do others, who eventually succeed, take a great deal longer than the majority of our students?This paper is a report on research in progress. Our research at this time is mainly concerned with:(a) Determining, in advance, which students are likely to encounter the severest problems learning computer science;(b) Finding out what there is specifically in the nature of the course material which causes the greatest difficulty for these students; and(c) Developing a methodology for helping students to overcome such learning problems.This paper is organized into 6 major sections.Section I is an introduction to the Natural Sciences 110 course, to the programming language used in this course, and to the major teaching problems we face.Section II is a statement of our goals in this research effort.Section III describes the method by which we are attempting to realize our intended goals.Section IV describes the special recitation sections which are being used to help us monitor the potentially "slower" students.Section V deals with classifying the specific conceptual barriers which we have thus far found to inhibit normal learning in many computer science students.Section VI is 2 statement of the direction which our research will follow in the immediate future.
