An Ideal van Hiele Webbased Model for Computer Programming Learning and Teaching to Promote Collaborative Learning Dr. J. Wey Chen, Professor Department of Information Management Southern Taiwan University of Technology Introduction • van Hiele model – adopted by Soviet educators for use in their geometry curriculum – in recent years, interest has risen in the United States (NCTM, 1989) – be applied to economics and chemistry in Holland – be verified by Fuys, Geddes, Lovett, and Tischler(1988) and Usiskin(1982) Van Hiele Model • involving five levels of thought development in geometry • focused on the role of instruction in teaching geometry and the role of instruction in helping students move from one level to the next • be first reported in companion dissertation at the University of Utrecht in 1957 ( van Hiele, 1957) • three aspects – insight – Obstacles (levels) • recognition, analysis, ordering, deduction, and rigor – Instruction (phases) • information, directed orientation, explication, free orientation, and integration An Idiosyncratic View of Teaching Programming • Boulay(1989) thought the difficulties of learning programming can be categorized into five areas • the programming environment factor which encompasses behavior of the physical machine and the semantics of the notional machine be considered in an effective instructional system design Acquisition for Programming Knowledge and Skills • Rogalski and Samurcay (1990) COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES CONDITIONS FOR PROGRAMMING COGNITIVE TOOLS - methods - environments - job aids PROBLEM SOLVING - categorization - operative ways EXPERIENCE & PRACTICE - library of familiar functions - universe of well known objects - set of already solved problems - compiled strategies - encapsulated notion KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE - concepts - Relations (between) - Operations (on) - notations DOMAIN REQUIREMENTS • Acquisition for Programming Knowledge and Skills Barnes, Fincher and Thompson(1997) , four-stage process of problem-solving – Understanding • • • – Design • • – Completing Adaptation to problem Review Testing • • Finding related problems and solutions Checking against I/O Writing • • – – Structuring and dividing Clarifying Finding sample I/O Summarizing lessons Booth(1992) found that they conceived learning programming in four ways – – – – Learning a programming language Learning to write programs in a programming language Learning to solve problem in the form of programs Becoming part of the programming community The Modified van Hiele Model • three major elements – the nature of insight – the levels of thought – the phases of learning • five-levels of thought – – – – – • visual and orientation descriptive and relations implications formal logic modification and analogy abstraction and modeling five sequential instructional steps – – – – – information guided orientation explication free orientation integration The Behaviors at Each Modified van Hiele Level • • • • First Level (Visual) Second Level (Descriptive) Third Level (Theoretical) Fourth Level (Formal logic Modification & Analogy) • Fifth Level (Abstraction & Modeling) Experimental Design and Controls • Follow-up interview The van Heile Web-based Model • The van Heile Web-based project to promote collaborative learning relies on six technologies – E-mail – Discussion board – Internet assignment units – Tutorial unit – Quick-run unit – Expert template The Architectural Structure of the van Hiele Web-based Project Discussion Board Tutorial Unit Example Quick-run Unit Expert Template Conclusions • We hope the proposed Modified van Hiele Model for Computer Science Teaching can help unveil the mystery of the “hidden mind” and provide a logical link for students to inductively learn problem-solving and programming skills • The success of this model is attributed to the extensive review of the available literature and to the exploratory interviews with students who participated in the first phase of study • The exploratory interviews with students and the observations generated a set of constructive data for us to devise a functional environment to support collaboration for learning programming in our second phase of study