Application of Active Learning Techniques to the Teaching of Introductory Programming

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been a movement to try to incorporate active learning techniques into traditional university classes. The main idea is that traditional classroom learning is very passive with the professor lecturing and the students listening. Active learning tries to engage students with a variety of techniques, which are mainly variations of traditional teaching techniques. This paper provides an overview of how active learning techniques might be applied to introductory programming classes and gives several specific examples of how this might be done.