A Snapshot of Current Practices in Teaching the Introductory Programming Sequence

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1145/1953163.195333

Conference Title

SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Publication Date

3-2011

Abstract

We present results from a nationwide survey of undergraduate computer science departments regarding languages and techniques taught in CS0, CS1, and CS2. This snapshot of 371 schools provides an intriguing look into the state of computing education today in the U.S., quantifying which practices are actually in common use. Among other things, the study reveals the great variety in CS0 approaches, the relative uniformity of CS1 and CS2 approaches, the dominance of Java as a language for the introductory major sequence, and the tendency for departments to teach CS1 and CS2 in a consistent manner, rather than exposing students to different ideas in each.

Publisher Statement

Open access support provided by: University of Mary Washington. (a listed on the header page of PDF article)

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