TY - GEN
T1 - Teaching students to think nondeterministically
AU - Armoni, Michal
AU - Lewenstein, Noa
AU - Ben-Ari, Mordechai
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Nondeterminism is a fundamental concept of computer science. However, since it is a very abstract concept, teaching and learning nondeterminism is difficult. In this paper we focus on one aspect of the teaching and learning processes of nondeterminism: the extent to which undergraduate students of computer science perceive that nondeterministic automata exhibit nondeterministic behavior, that is, they are unpredictable and inconsistent. First we show that students tend to think of nondeterministic automata as consistent machines; then we show that an explicit intervention can significantly affect students' mental models of nondeterministic automata in the direction of improving their perception of nondeterministic behavior.
AB - Nondeterminism is a fundamental concept of computer science. However, since it is a very abstract concept, teaching and learning nondeterminism is difficult. In this paper we focus on one aspect of the teaching and learning processes of nondeterminism: the extent to which undergraduate students of computer science perceive that nondeterministic automata exhibit nondeterministic behavior, that is, they are unpredictable and inconsistent. First we show that students tend to think of nondeterministic automata as consistent machines; then we show that an explicit intervention can significantly affect students' mental models of nondeterministic automata in the direction of improving their perception of nondeterministic behavior.
KW - Nondeterminism
KW - Nondeterministic automata
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=57449110528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1352135.1352141
DO - 10.1145/1352135.1352141
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AN - SCOPUS:57449110528
SN - 9781595937995
T3 - SIGCSE'08 - Proceedings of the 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
SP - 4
EP - 8
BT - SIGCSE'08 - Proceedings of the 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
T2 - 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2008
Y2 - 12 March 2008 through 15 March 2008
ER -