Enriching Students' Combinatorial Reasoning through the Use of Loops and Conditional Statements in Python

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Název: Enriching Students' Combinatorial Reasoning through the Use of Loops and Conditional Statements in Python
Jazyk: English
Autoři: Lockwood, Elise (ORCID 0000-0002-4118-338X), De Chenne, Adaline
Zdroj: International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education. Oct 2020 6(3):303-346.
Dostupnost: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 44
Datum vydání: 2020
Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Contract Number: 1650943
Druh dokumentu: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Thinking Skills, Programming Languages, Computer Science Education, Introductory Courses, Computation, Mathematics Skills, Concept Formation, Problem Solving, Instructional Effectiveness, Undergraduate Students
DOI: 10.1007/s40753-019-00108-2
ISSN: 2198-9745
Abstrakt: When solving counting problems, students often struggle with determining what they are trying to count (and thus what problem type they are trying to solve and, ultimately, what formula appropriately applies). There is a need to explore potential interventions to deepen students' understanding of key distinctions between problem types and to differentiate meaningfully between such problems. In this paper, we investigate undergraduate students' understanding of sets of outcomes in the context of elementary Python computer programming. We show that four straightforward program conditional statements seemed to reinforce important conceptual understandings of four canonical combinatorial problem types. We also suggest that the findings in this paper represent one example of a way in which a computational setting may facilitate mathematical learning.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2020
Přístupové číslo: EJ1269141
Databáze: ERIC
Popis
Abstrakt:When solving counting problems, students often struggle with determining what they are trying to count (and thus what problem type they are trying to solve and, ultimately, what formula appropriately applies). There is a need to explore potential interventions to deepen students' understanding of key distinctions between problem types and to differentiate meaningfully between such problems. In this paper, we investigate undergraduate students' understanding of sets of outcomes in the context of elementary Python computer programming. We show that four straightforward program conditional statements seemed to reinforce important conceptual understandings of four canonical combinatorial problem types. We also suggest that the findings in this paper represent one example of a way in which a computational setting may facilitate mathematical learning.
ISSN:2198-9745
DOI:10.1007/s40753-019-00108-2