[HN Gopher] Teaching Algorithm Design: A Literature Review
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       Teaching Algorithm Design: A Literature Review
        
       Author : belter
       Score  : 79 points
       Date   : 2024-05-19 20:01 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arxiv.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arxiv.org)
        
       | haskellandchill wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | That sounds like a really fun way to learn!
        
         | ellen364 wrote:
         | 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."
        
       | fn-mote wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | I had a similar reaction. I plan on using this paper mostly for
         | it's bibliography.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-20 23:02 UTC)