Article

Do senior CS students capitalize on recursion?

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David GinatAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '04: Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Pages 82 - 86

https://doi.org/10.1145/1007996.1008020

Published: 28 June 2004 Publication History

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Abstract

CS students learn and practice recursion in CS1, Data-Structures, Introduction-to-Algorithms, and additional courses throughout the curriculum. Previous studies revealed difficulties of CS1 students with the concept and the construct of recursion. What about advanced students? They may well understand the concept and the construct of recursion; but do they invoke and utilize recursion as a problem solving means? The paper examines this aspect, with senior CS students. The students were given three algorithmic tasks, for which the suitable solution approach was recursive. The student solutions and explanations demonstrate very limited capitalization on recursion as a problem solving means. We discuss the findings and suggest pedagogical implications for teaching.

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Cited By

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Adams JAnderson HStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Hearing Iterative and Recursive BehaviorProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630866(4-10)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630866
Lacave CMolina ARedondo M(2018)A Preliminary Instrument for Measuring Students’ Subjective Perceptions of Difficulties in Learning RecursionIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2017.275834661:2(119-126)Online publication date: 1-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TE.2017.2758346
Brodanac P(2017)Recursions and how to teach them2017 40th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO)10.23919/MIPRO.2017.7973520(740-745)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO.2017.7973520
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Index Terms

Do senior CS students capitalize on recursion?
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

ITiCSE '04: Proceedings of the 9th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

June 2004

296 pages

ISBN:1581138369

DOI:10.1145/1007996

Conference Chair:
Roger Boyle
University of Leeds, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Martyn Clark
University of Leeds, UK
,
Amruth Kumar
Ramapo College of NJ

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 36, Issue 3
September 2004
280 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1026487
Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 28 June 2004

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ITiCSE04

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ITiCSE04: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

June 28 - 30, 2004

Leeds, United Kingdom

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Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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Cited By

View all

Adams JAnderson HStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Hearing Iterative and Recursive BehaviorProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630866(4-10)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630866
Lacave CMolina ARedondo M(2018)A Preliminary Instrument for Measuring Students’ Subjective Perceptions of Difficulties in Learning RecursionIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2017.275834661:2(119-126)Online publication date: 1-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TE.2017.2758346
Brodanac P(2017)Recursions and how to teach them2017 40th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO)10.23919/MIPRO.2017.7973520(740-745)Online publication date: May-2017
https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO.2017.7973520
Velazquez-Iturbide JCastellanos MHijon-Neira R(2016)Recursion Removal as an Instructional Method to Enhance the Understanding of Recursion TracingIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2015.246868259:3(161-168)Online publication date: Aug-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2015.2468682
Decker ASimkins D(2016)Uncovering difficulties in learning for the intermediate programmer2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757446(1-8)Online publication date: Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757446
Decker AEgert CPhelps A(2016)Splat! er, shmup? A postmortem on a capstone production experience2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757399(1-9)Online publication date: Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757399
Sanders IScholtz T(2013)First year students' understanding of the flow of control in recursive algorithmsAfrican Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education10.1080/10288457.2012.1074075016:3(348-362)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2013
https://doi.org/10.1080/10288457.2012.10740750
Koppelman Hvan Dijk BAyfer RImpagliazzo JLaxer C(2010)Teaching abstraction in introductory coursesProceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education10.1145/1822090.1822140(174-178)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1822090.1822140
Ginat DArmoni M(2006)ReversingACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1124706.112148838:1(469-473)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1124706.1121488
Ginat DArmoni MBaldwin DTymann PHaller SRussell I(2006)ReversingProceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education10.1145/1121341.1121488(469-473)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1121341.1121488
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