A Strategy for the Design of Introductory Computer Programming Course in High School

Abstract

The ever increasing involvement of electronic and programmable devices in life invites people to learn computer programming as an essential skill. Mathematics and computer programming are two inter-related and inter-dependent subjects. Several different concepts of mathematics are introduced at high school level, and usually the students do not feel comfortable with this subject. In this article, we propose an approach for introducing computer programming at high school level. We have argued that the programming skills should be enhanced with the help of mathematical concepts learned by the students. We present the main idea, and pave the way for its materialization with the help of mapping the constructs of computer programming onto the concepts of mathematics. We also discuss as to how we should customize the programming languages to make it easier to teach and learn computer programming and mathematics with the help of one another. In order to emphasize on our proposed methodology we present a mapping of concepts of mathematics onto the constructs of a widely used introductory computer programming language C++. We further discuss the customization of C++ for teaching and learning computer programming in a more seamless manner by introducing relevant abstractions in the language. Lastly, we also highlight the need of developing new tools, defining syllabus, writing new books, and preparing interesting exercises and exams are the next steps to achieve this goal.

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