Facilitating Learning Dynamic Programming Through a Previous Introduction of Exhaustive Search

摘要

A strategy to facilitate learning Dynamic Programming (DP) is presented. The strategy consists in introducing Exhaustive Search (ES) before DP. The foundations of the strategy are the following hypothesis: (1) knowing ES can be a contributing factor in learning DP; (2) ES is easier to understand than DP; and (3) having an ES solution can help to find a DP solution. Based on the implementation of the strategy during one semester, we conclude that it was effective, since the students were able to understand DP more easily than in the previous semester, where the strategy was not applied.