Reducing Abstraction When Learning Computability Theory

摘要

Computer science education is a relatively young discipline. As a young discipline, it is still in need of its own particular research framework (Clancy, Stasko, Guzdial, Fincher, & Dale, 2001). A very close research field is the discipline of research in mathematics education. With its roots at the close of the 19th century, the mathematics education research is a relatively mature research area. For about the past 50 years, mathematics educators have been studying learning theories, teaching approaches, and other cognitive and social issues with respect to K-12 and with respect to higher education. The main target of this article is to illustrate how theories from mathematics education can be applied for explaining student conception of computer science ideas. It does this by demonstrating how the theme of reducing abstraction (Haz-zan, 1999) can be used for analyzing mental processes of students who learn computability theory.