Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: There has been much less debate within the computing research community about teaching algorithms than about teaching introductory programming.However, it is advisable (or even necessary) to hold public discussions about different issues, independently of more focused research efforts.This position paper addresses two themes.Firstly, it advocates for an experiential approach to learning algorithms, as a complement to the more common formal and engineering approaches.We show how visualization and benchmarking can make algorithms more concrete to students and their learning more active and insightful.Secondly, we argue that some conceptual models present in algorithm textbooks are imprecise, or even implicit, making difficult to learn their corresponding topics.We elaborate on this concern by stressing that several algorithm design techniques address a specific class of problems (namely, optimization ones) and by visiting several aspects of three design techniques (greedy algorithms, dynamic programming and branch-and-bound). CCS Concepts•Theory of computation~Design and analysis of algorithms~Algorithm design techniques•Social and professional topics~Professional topics~Computing education~Computing education programs~Computer science education
Author: J. ángel Velázquez-Iturbide
Institution: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Science Applications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407770946