Teaching recursion through games, songs, stories, directories and hacking

Butgereit, Laurie

doi:10.1109/icacce.2016.8073782

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This puzzle is well known and used in the field of cognitive psychology and mathematics to teach several concepts (Klavžar & Milutinović, 1997;Kotovsky et al, 1985). Because of the connection of these fields to computer science, Tower of Hanoi puzzle is also used to teach computing concepts including recursion (Butgereit, 2016). In the IVR application showcased in this study, the Tower of Hanoi was integrated to visualize recursion so that players can comprehend and gain recursive thinking skills, which is one of the concepts of computational thinking.…”

Section: Description Of the Vr Application And The Mini Games To Fost...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the relationships between students’ perceptions of technology, pedagogy, and cognition: the case of immersive virtual reality mini games to foster computational thinking in higher education

Agbo

Olaleye

Bower

et al. 2023

Smart Learn. Environ.

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Researchers are increasingly exploring educational games in immersive virtual reality (IVR) environments to facilitate students’ learning experiences. Mainly, the effect of IVR on learning outcomes has been the focus. However, far too little attention has been paid to the influence of game elements and IVR features on learners’ perceived cognition. This study examined the relationship between game elements (challenge, goal clarity, and feedback) as pedagogical approach, features of IVR technology (immersion and interaction), and learners’ perceived cognition (reflective thinking and comprehension). An experiment was conducted with 49 undergraduate students who played an IVR game-based application (iThinkSmart) containing mini games developed to facilitate learners’ computational thinking competency. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modelling to investigate the effect of educational game elements and learning contents on learner’s cognition. Findings show that goal clarity is the main predictor of learners’ reflective thinking and comprehension in an educational game-based IVR application. It was also confirmed that immersion and interaction experience impact learner’s comprehension. Notably, adequate learning content in terms of the organisation and relevance of the content contained in an IVR game-based application significantly moderate learners’ reflective thinking and comprehension. The findings of this study have implications for educators and developers of IVR game-based intervention to facilitate learning in the higher education context. In particular, the implication of this study touches on the aspect of learners’ cognitive factors that aim to produce 21st-century problem-solving skills through critical thinking.

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Section: Description Of the Vr Application And The Mini Games To Fost...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the relationships between students’ perceptions of technology, pedagogy, and cognition: the case of immersive virtual reality mini games to foster computational thinking in higher education

Agbo

Olaleye

Bower

et al. 2023

Smart Learn. Environ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mathematics also allows recursive definitions, 2 which in general cannot be completely eliminated by substitution as described above. 3 Well known is the factorial function n! (n factorial) defined for natural numbers n by…”

Section: Recursive Definitions Unfolding and Inductive Proofsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two literature surveys [17,24] review a large number of publications on the teaching of recursion. A few additional publications are [1,3,11,12,20,25]. One of my introductions to recursion was [2], which is now outdated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Master Class on Recursion

Verhoeff

2018

Adventures Between Lower Bounds and Higher Altitudes

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We elaborate some key topics for a master class on recursion. In particular, we show how to do recursion in an object-oriented programming language that does not allow recursion. This article is dedicated to Juraj Hromkovič, who has inspired me (and many others) with his rare gift of contributing to cutting-edge research in theoretical computer science and to the didactics and popularization of informatics, and with his contagious enthusiasm for educating others. Good theoretical insights can and must be passed on to the next generations.

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Design, development, and evaluation of a virtual reality game-based application to support computational thinking

Agbo

Oyelere

Suhonen

et al. 2022

Education Tech Research Dev

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Computational thinking (CT) has become an essential skill nowadays. For young students, CT competency is required to prepare them for future jobs. This competency can facilitate students’ understanding of programming knowledge which has been a challenge for many novices pursuing a computer science degree. This study focuses on designing and implementing a virtual reality (VR) game-based application (iThinkSmart) to support CT knowledge. The study followed the design science research methodology to design, implement, and evaluate the first prototype of the VR application. An initial evaluation of the prototype was conducted with 47 computer science students from a Nigerian university who voluntarily participated in an experimental process. To determine what works and what needs to be improved in the iThinkSmart VR game-based application, two groups were randomly formed, consisting of the experimental (n = 21) and the control (n = 26) groups respectively. Our findings suggest that VR increases motivation and therefore increase students’ CT skills, which contribute to knowledge regarding the affordances of VR in education and particularly provide evidence on the use of visualization of CT concepts to facilitate programming education. Furthermore, the study revealed that immersion, interaction, and engagement in a VR educational application can promote students’ CT competency in higher education institutions (HEI). In addition, it was shown that students who played the iThinkSmart VR game-based application gained higher cognitive benefits, increased interest and attitude to learning CT concepts. Although further investigation is required in order to gain more insights into students learning process, this study made significant contributions in positioning CT in the HEI context and provides empirical evidence regarding the use of educational VR mini games to support students learning achievements.

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Teaching recursion through games, songs, stories, directories and hacking

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Examining the relationships between students’ perceptions of technology, pedagogy, and cognition: the case of immersive virtual reality mini games to foster computational thinking in higher education

Examining the relationships between students’ perceptions of technology, pedagogy, and cognition: the case of immersive virtual reality mini games to foster computational thinking in higher education

A Master Class on Recursion

Design, development, and evaluation of a virtual reality game-based application to support computational thinking

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