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Article Excerpt
Computer Science formal education brings together old-timers from
two computer-literate cultures. The curriculum is oriented toward the academic community, whose interest is in the abstraction, solution, and proofs of algorithmic problems, whereas many students are technology users, whose main interest is the manipulation of the products of technology. Ultimately, this situation leads to a culture clash, which can be resolved by designing the didactical milieux as fertile zones of cultural encounters, that is, providing the students with the motivation and opportunities to cross their cultural boundaries toward the target culture. This approach is demonstrated by describing a course in concurrent and distributed computation designed for high-school students, focusing on one lab assignment. A qualitative analysis of the processes that two students underwent as they coped with the assignment illustrates the influence of their cultural background as technology users and portrays the mutual interplay of the cultural and cognitive aspects of learning. The analysis of the performance of two classes of students reinforces the argument regarding the effectiveness of the milieu.
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This work presents an investigation of the process of the evolution of knowledge that students go through when studying a course in concurrent and distributed computation. The investigation was carried out with the theoretical assumption that the goal of computer science (CS) instruction is to serve as an entry point into the community of CS practitioners. Based on the findings, this work suggests a model for designing a course in CS.
The theoretical framework underlying this work is that of situated learning. According to this framework, learning occurs when newcomers participate in peripheral yet legitimate, genuine activities of the target community of practice (CoP). The newcomers gradually achieve a holistic perspective of the professional practice and increase their participation, ultimately becoming full-fledged participants (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998).
The core of computer science practice is programming (Hoare, 1989; Fincher, 1999). However, Booth (2001) distinguished between three programming cultures, with different webs of significance: (a) the academic, (b) the industrial, and (c) the informal. Viewed from a socio-cultural perspective, the current situation in high-school CS studies is manifested as a clash between two programming cultures: CS education represents the culture of the CS academic world, whereas the students are old-timers in the informal culture. The clash occurs since the instructional setting fails to win the students' acceptance as representative of and relevant to the hi-tech world that they look to as their professional future.
To resolve this clash, courses in CS should be designed as fertile zones of cultural encounter, that is, encounter points that bridge between the cultures in such a way that students will find the target cultures relevant to their computer-literate knowledge. This way, students would be motivated to cross the cultural boundaries and to become immersed in the target culture.
The article demonstrates the approach by describing a course in concurrent and distributed computation developed for high-school students and a study conducted on students as they worked on one course assignment. The study demonstrates the process of gradual enculturation within the practice of CS, leading to the conclusion that the course can serve as an entry point into the community of CS practitioners.
One section surveys the background of this work and another section describes the course in concurrent and distributed computation, and the unique non-deterministic behavior of multi-entity programs, to explain why it provides a CS course designer with a very suitable background for designing a milieu that encourages students to engage in genuine CS practice as a means of learning. One lab assignment is described that was designed to serve as an entry point into the CS CoP. The study carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the assignment is described; it consisted of an analysis of written solutions to the assignment, and a qualitative analysis of the solution process that two pairs of students underwent as they worked on the assignment. The written solutions are surveyed and then the qualitative analysis is described that showed in depth that one pair of students crossed the boundaries, moving to a higher level of understanding, whereas the other pair of students did not. The findings are discussed in depth, and their pedagogical implications as well as the relevance of this study to the community of CS educators are also discussed.
BACKGROUND
Learning: Participating in a Community of Practice
Lave and Wenger (1991) portrayed learning as a process of entering a culture or a community of practice (CoP), by participating in a legitimate peripheral activity of the target CoP or culture. According to Wenger (1998), CoPs are groups of people who share similar goals and interests, and pursue their goals by employing a common practice, producing shared capabilities, namely repertoire. Cultures consist of composite repertoires created by the interacting, borrowing, imposing, and brokering of its constituent CoPs.
The socio-cultural viewpoint underscores that the activity by which knowledge is developed and deployed is not merely ancillary to learning, but rather, it is an integral part of what is learned, since concepts evolve with each new occasion of use and each activity recasts them in new forms (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989). Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) viewed conceptual knowledge metaphorically as tools, and claimed that by using a tool, one develops a rich understanding of it and its use, as well as of the environment in which it is used. Thus, a learner would make the best judgment of the productivity of a tool by using it in its natural context.
Whereas the socio-cultural emphasis is on the social interaction regarding learning, the cognitive constructivist perspective focuses on the construction of the individual's knowledge structures. This perspective emphasizes that learning is a continuous process in which new situations are interpreted with the existing knowledge and that in turn initiates a process of refinement and extension of one's knowledge on the basis of productivity. Non-productive pieces of knowledge are destined to become weakened, inert, and lost, whereas productive pieces of knowledge are refined and extended to the knowledge base, connected to other pieces by many types of links (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, 1993).
The investigation of students' learning described here was oriented toward improvements in the instructional setting. Therefore, the investigation focused on the mutual interplay between the culture among students' lives and the pieces of knowledge they judge as productive.
Formal Education: Designing and Playing Games
Formal education takes place at school, and since learning is tuned to the situation in which it occurs (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989), the mere existence of school has implications regarding the characteristics of the practice that students participate in. Brousseau (1997) described didactical situations as didactical games that both students and educators "play." The students' goal is to survive and to win the game, and learning occurs as the students elaborate strategies to make sense of the milieu--which is the game that the teacher (the knowledge engineer) designed.
Consequently, educators should design the didactical milieus (games) according to the knowledge they intend to devolve, taking into account the other players--the students. The knowledge to devolve in each subject matter should constitute the peripheral activities of the CoP that the teachers represent and facilitate (Yackel & Cobb, 1996). A course should be designed to provide both opportunities and motivation to cross the boundaries from a nonparticipant to a peripheral participant in a CoP, by enabling an environment conducive to peripheral activities in the CoP, and providing access to knowledge resources of the CoP, as well as links from current activities to the actual practice.
Educators should be aware of the following hindrances: (a) a cultural school-obstacle that enables surviving without much learning, which Brousseau (1997) referred to as the didactical contract; on the one hand, the teachers are expected to ask questions that the students can answer, and to simplify the assignment if they observe that the students need help. Students, on the other hand, are expected to answer the questions and to learn. Fulfilling the didactical contract would prevent the students from achieving the original goals of the milieu, since the students, in choosing this strategy, make a detour. (b) In addition, since school learning is in essence a simulation (Brousseau, 1997) rather than practicing the real thing, the didactical activities must also accept the legitimacy of the students, who may wish to belong to the professional CoP, as representatives of the actual practice. Otherwise, the students might choose to remain on the sidelines, merely attempting to survive the milieu that they find irrelevant to their future.
The CS practice
Hoare (1989) claimed that the core of the discipline of computer science is...
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