Eamon Worden
Peter-Michael Osera
ABSTRACT
Notional Machines (NMs) are a pedagogical device used by teachers in order to help students understand certain concepts. While NMs have been cataloged, the effectiveness of NMs has been rarely evaluated. We build upon this research by exploring what makes certain NMs more effective in various computer science and mathematics courses. We interview professors and students to assess NMs used in the classroom. Notably we found that most students are able to employ the NMs introduced by their professors, and that introductory students prefer template-like NMs, whereas upper level students rely on more conceptual NMs.
Supplemental Material
- Benedict Du Boulay, Tim O'Shea, and John Monk. 1981. The black box inside the glass box: presenting computing concepts to novices. International Journal of man-machine studies 14, 3 (1981), 237--249.Google Scholar
Cross Ref
- Sally Fincher, Johan Jeuring, Craig S Miller, Peter Donaldson, Benedict Du Boulay, Matthias Hauswirth, Arto Hellas, Felienne Hermans, Colleen Lewis, Andreas Mühling, et al. 2020. Notional machines in computing education: The education of attention. In Proceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 21--50.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Notional Machine in Mathematics and Introductory Computer Science Courses
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