Analysis of approaches in teaching the introductory programming course in universities

Abstract

The importance of the effective study of the initial programming course (CS1), on the one hand, and the need to take into account the requirements for IT professionals today, on the other hand, encourage universities to flexibly change educational components, adjust curricula and disciplines. The relevance of finding approaches that positively affect the effectiveness of learning the basics of programming, due to the complexity of this course for students and the high level of dropout in the first session.The paper analyzes the approaches of foreign universities in teaching the CS1 course. The tendencies of the Ukrainian IT labour market concerning the need for adjustment of the content of the Algorithmization and programming course (Ukrainian analogue CS1) are investigated.It is established that there is no universal solution to the problems associated with teaching the initial programming course in the universities. Important factors that positively affect the success of programming training are the motivation of students, a set of didactic processes and methods, as well as good knowledge of the subject by teachers. To increase the effectiveness of training, researchers propose to change the programming language used in the introductory programming course and to introduce new classes of tasks in the curriculum. The effectiveness of the solutions depends on the regional specifics and traditions of IT education.Considering the ranking of programming languages in demand in Ukraine, the need to establish a relationship between disciplines and specifics of courses, the appropriate scheme of using programming languages are C / C ++ in Algorithmization and programming course (CS1) and then Java / C # in Object-oriented programming course (CS2). Another solution is to collaborate with IT companies and to involve students in writing real programs.