Teaching Strategies and Learning Styles CRA-W Workshop Mar 7, 2007

1. Teaching Strategies and Learning StylesCRA-W WorkshopMar 7, 2007 Susan Rodger Associate Professor of the Practice Duke University www.cs.duke.edu/~rodger

2. Outline • About Me • Learning Styles • Teaching Strategies • Preparation for class • Group dynamics • Activities w/o computer • Activities w/ computer • JAWAA • JFLAP

3. Who Am I - Personally? Spouse Mother

4. Hobby – Baking Shape cakes, cookies

5. How do you make those cakes?

6. What path did I take? PhD, 1989 Computer Science Assistant Prof. 1989-1994 Assistant Prof. Of Practice 1994-1997 Associate Prof. Of Practice 1997-present

7. Along the way, Duke’s been great! • Virtual Prof (bedrest) - Fall 1996 • Maternity leave – Spring 1997 • Virtual Prof (bedrest) – Fall 1999 • Maternity leave – Spring 2000 • ¾ time for five years – Fall 2000-Spring 2005 • “Leave” Fall 2004 – writing books

8. What is Associate Professor “of the Practice”? • Position exists in many departments at Duke • About 20% of Arts and Sciences Faculty • PhD preferred, or appropriate professional experience • Non-tenure track, permanent position, promotable • Renewable contracts (4 –8 yrs) • Focus on “education in the discipline” • Main tasks • Teaching (2 courses per semester) • Research (related to education) • Service, advising

9. How do Prof of Practice differ from regular rank faculty in CS? • Teach 2 courses/semester vs 1 course/semester • Focus on undergrad curriculum, first two years • Teach intro courses • Other grad and undergrad courses too • Supervise undergraduates more than grad. studs. • Attend faculty meetings • Vote on everything except tenure decisions • No sabbatical, instead apply for Dean’s leave • Salary is similar! • Write grants – CS education or education part of research grant

10. My Research Interests • Computer Science Education • Visualization and Interaction • Instructional Tools for Theoretical concepts • Automata theory and formal languages • Algorithm Animation

11. Three NSF Projects I’m involved in • JFLAP • Software for automata theory • Study with 14 universities • The Alice project • Create 3D virtual worlds • Teaching programming non-majors college • Teaching to K-12 – 6 regional sites, $1.3 Million • Peer Led Team Learning • Students teaching students • 8 universities, 4 year grant • Women and minorities

12. Learning Styles • Visual Learners • Learn through seeing • Learn best from visual displays • Auditory Learners • Learn through listening • Learn best through verbal lectures, discussions • Kinesthetic Learners • Learn through moving, doing and touching • Learn best through hands-on approach

13. How do you reach all three types? • You must do all three! • Provide pictures, diagrams • Discuss what you are doing • Provide activities for trying it

14. Teaching StrategiesPreparation for class

15. Get to know your students! • Get their picture • Pass around a camera the first day • Registrar photo lists • Assigned Seating • Calling on students • Pick-a-student system (rotate thru their pictures)

16. Interactive Lecture • Lecture for 10-20 minutes • Students solve a problem • Solve problem from scratch (longer) • Find what is wrong with a “solution” (shorter) • Discuss solution • Ask how many did X? (gets students involved) • Give a possible solution (shorter) • Student present solution (longer) • REPEAT

17. Interactive Lecture Notes and Handouts • Create 4 versions of my lecture • Slides with holes • Handouts with holes • My notes – holes filled in • Library notes (handouts with holes filled in) • Don’t give out any more

18. How to create Lecture notes • Latex – 1 file with tags • %M – my notes only • %S – slides and handout • %SO – slides only • %LH – library notes, my notes and handout • Etc.. • Powerpoint • Use notes feature, print slides 4 per page • Tablet PC • Different views

19. Interactive Lecture with ComputersOR Interactive Lab • Lecture for 10-20 minutes • Students work on problem with computers • Bring students back together

20. Room Layout with Computers • 20 computers, 40 students • Extra desks for group work • Advantage: see what students are doing

21. Say help with a Beanie Thanks to Robert Duvall

22. Teaching StrategiesGroup Dynamics • Work with large or small classes

23. Divide Students into Groups • Random assignment • Count off and assign groups on the spot • Assign in advance, bring in seating chart • Change groups every 2-3 weeks • Students work on problems during class in groups • Short (2 min) or long problems (20 min)

24. Advantages to Random Groups Large or Small classes • Students help each other • Students are more confident to answer questions – not feeling alone • Students present different solutions • Students meet other students • Less work to grade for you • Can pass graded work back quickly • Sort it by groups first

25. Groups in Lab - Pair Programming • Work in pairs • Responsibilities • One person is driver • One person is navigator • “Pair Programming Illuminated” by Williams and Kessler, 2003

26. Teaching StrategiesActivities Without a Computer • Get creative in bringing hands-on activities into the classroom

27. Interaction in Class – PropsPassing “Parameters” in Class • Pass by reference – throw frisbee • Pass by value – throw copy of frisbee • Pass by const reference – throw “protected” frisbee

28. Interaction in Class – PropsLinked List and Memory Heaps ITiCSE 98 – Astrachan – “Concrete Teaching: Hooks and Props as Instructional Technology

29. Interaction in Class – Props Memory Heap

30. Be a Robot • 4 People • Controller (head) • Sensors (eyes) • Manipulators (2 hands) • Blindfolded except eyes • Controller knows what to build • Limited communication SIGCSE 96, Rodger,Walker

31. Sorting Over 100 Words anchor physiotherapist pathetic bootstrapped acrimonious polarization firecracker palindrome observatory controversial orchestrate statistician confrontation scrumptious revolutionary … • An envelope with over 100 words, each word on one slip of paper • Sort the words • Write down the algorithm • Early assignment, before sorting is covered

32. Interaction with Class Binary Tree and Recursion • Build a binary tree • Pick a root • Root picks two children – point at them • Repeat until everyone is part of the tree • Recursively calculate height of tree • Start at root • Ask children their height • Leaf notes know their height is 0 SIGCSE 2002 – Wolfman – “Making Lemonade: Exploring the Bright Side of Large Lecture Classes

33. Interaction in Class – PropsEdible Turing Machine • TM for f(x)=2x where x is unary • TM is not correct, can you fix it? Then eat it! • States are blueberry muffins

34. Students building DFA with cookies and icing

35. The Smart Waitress vs Customer • Four cups on a revolving tray (each up or down) • Waitress blindfolded and wears boxing gloves • Goal is to turn all cups up • Game – Repeat: • W turns 1-4 cups • If all up wins • Customer rotates tray 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees • Is there a winning strategy? • This is a DFA problem From an old EATCS bulletin

36. Teaching StrategiesActivities With a Computer • Using software to teach concepts during lecture • Will illustrate with software I use in lecture • JAWAA • JFLAP

37. The Role of Visualization and Engagement • Working Group ITiCSE 2002 (Naps et al) • Six Levels of Learner Engagement • Hypothesis: 1 and 2 equivalent, higher the number, better learning outcomes

38. What is JAWAA? • Scripting Language for Animation • Easily create, modify and move objects • Runs over the web, no need to install • More Advanced Students • Output JAWAA Command from Program • Animate Data Structures Easily • SIGCSE 2003 and SIGCSE 1998 • www.cs.duke.edu/~rodger/tools/ • Students: Pierson, Patel, Finley, Akingbade, Jackson, Gibson, Gartland

39. Related Work • Samba, Jsamba - Stasko (Georgia Tech) • AnimalScript – Roessling (Darmstadt Univ of Tech, SIGCSE 2001) • JHAVE – Naps (U. Wisc. Oshkosh, SIGCSE 2000)

40. JAWAA Commands

41. JAWAA Primitives

42. JAWAA Data Structures Array

43. JAWAA Data Structures • Stack • Queue

44. JAWAA Data Structures • Linked List • Trees

45. JAWAA Editor • Easily create animations • Graphically layout primitives • Modify across time • No knowledge of JAWAA • Export to JAWAA file • Start with JAWAA editor, finish with JAWAA output from program

46. Instructor Use of JAWAA in CS 1/2 • Use JAWAA Editor to make quick animations for lecture • Fast - 4-8 minutes each animations, Fall 2002 CS 2 Course • Create quick animation of data structure in an existing program, add JAWAA commands as output • Show web pages with JAWAA animations in lecture • Students replay animations later

47. Instructor Animations for CS 2 Lecture • How Pointers Work in Memory • Recursion • Shellsort • Linked List - Insert at the Front • Quadratic Collision Resolution • Build Heap and Heapsort

48. JAWAA w/o Editor vs Editor Nonmajors course Spring 2001 No JAWAA Editor Fall 2002 Using JAWAA Editor

49. Overview of JFLAP • Java Formal Languages and Automata Package • Instructional tool to learn concepts of Formal Languages and Automata Theory • SIGCSE 2006 • www.jflap.org

50. What is JFLAP? Regular languages – create • DFA • NFA • regular grammar • regular expression Regular languages - conversions • NFA to DFA to Min DFA • NFA to reg grammar to NFA • NFA to reg expr to NFA