Teaching Algorithm Design: A Literature Review

by belter • 2 years ago

87 8 2 years ago

Active learning and problem selection is what I came to as well going through the literature. I was thinking of teaching algorithm design by having students build their own algorithm laboratory where they create visualizations and experiments that motivate interest in problems and the design of solutions.

noman-land• 2 years ago

That sounds like a really fun way to learn!

ellen364• 2 years ago

A build your own algorithm laboratory sounds fun.

I think “motivating the problem” (a phrase I hear a lot in American lectures) is often the weakest part of an algorithm and data structure course. The teaching approaches seem quite abstract, or make passing mention to practical problems.

Personally I find algorithms a bit boring in the abstract. I’ve always wondered why DSA projects are so rarely things like “Here’s a simple database that doesn’t support indexes. We’re going to query it and it will be painful. Then you’ll extend the database with a b-tree index.”

aleph_minus_one2• 2 years ago

“Here’s a simple database that doesn’t support indexes. We’re going to query it and it will be painful. Then you’ll extend the database with a b-tree index.”

Because this is in my opinion a too complicated project for many computer science students (of a non-elite university). In other words: this looks like a great project to "weed out" students who should better not study computer science. Lectures/projects to weed out unusuitable student seem not to be accepted in the academic environment in the USA.

fn-mote• 2 years ago

The vast majority of this paper discusses the methodology.

The actual part that you would use in teaching is miniscule.

It's education research, of course there are no randomized trials... you could never believe them anyway.

Honestly, this preprint is not worth reading. If you want the takeaways, jump to section 5 on page 11. You will find things like "intentional problem selection" and "problems with a variety of solutions".

Possibly of note "introducing visualizations provides no statistically significant learning outcomes".

Papers are quoted but there is no digest version of the results (as far as I could see).

You would be better off just reading an evidence-based book on teaching, like "How People Learn" [1] or the related "How Students Learn" [2]. At least those books go somewhere and present results. Updated references would be welcome.

[1] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9853/how-people-le... [2] https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11102/how-students...

jkingsbery• 2 years ago

I had a similar reaction. I plan on using this paper mostly for it's bibliography.

Teaching Algorithm Design: A Literature Review

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