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Do senior CS students capitalize on recursion?

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David GinatAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 36, Issue 3

Pages 82 - 86

https://doi.org/10.1145/1026487.1008020

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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Chaudhuri AHu W(2019)A fast algorithm for computing distance correlationComputational Statistics & Data Analysis10.1016/j.csda.2019.01.016135:C(15-24)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.csda.2019.01.016
Syslo MKwiatkowska A(2014)Introducing Students to Recursion: A Multi-facet and Multi-tool ApproachInformatics in Schools. Teaching and Learning Perspectives10.1007/978-3-319-09958-3_12(124-137)Online publication date: 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09958-3_12
Stephenson B(2009)Using graphical examples to motivate the study of recursionJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1619221.161923025:1(42-50)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1619221.1619230
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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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Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 36, Issue 3

September 2004

280 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1026487

Issue’s Table of Contents

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

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]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 28 June 2004

Published in SIGCSE Volume 36, Issue 3

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Cited By

View all

Chaudhuri AHu W(2019)A fast algorithm for computing distance correlationComputational Statistics & Data Analysis10.1016/j.csda.2019.01.016135:C(15-24)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.csda.2019.01.016
Syslo MKwiatkowska A(2014)Introducing Students to Recursion: A Multi-facet and Multi-tool ApproachInformatics in Schools. Teaching and Learning Perspectives10.1007/978-3-319-09958-3_12(124-137)Online publication date: 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09958-3_12
Stephenson B(2009)Using graphical examples to motivate the study of recursionJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1619221.161923025:1(42-50)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1619221.1619230
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
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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
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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
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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
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