Date and time: 11.30am - 12.30pm, Friday 18th April, 2008
Venue: 10.08.04 (Building 10, Level 8, Room 4)
Abstract:
Academics lead a double life. In our research lives we see ourselves as part
of a community that reaches beyond our own university. We read literature, we
attend conferences, we publish, and the cycle repeats, with community members
building upon each other's work. But in our other life we rarely discuss
teaching beyond our own university, nor are we guided by theory or literature;
instead we simply follow our private instincts.
Whereas in research, we build upon the previous research cycle, in
teaching we reinvent the wheel. As the
NSF recently noted, "undergraduate computing education today often looks
much as it did several decades ago".
While the technology we teach has changed dramatically, our pedagogy
remains largely unchanged - could this have anything to do with the downturn in
undergraduate numbers?
Academics in computing, or in any other discipline, can approach their teaching
as research into how novices become experts.
The Australian and New Zealand BRACElet
project is one model of how this can be done. It is a multi-institutional
action research study of how novice programmers comprehend and write computer
programs. Monash is already a
participating institution, and all
About the speaker:
Raymond Lister is a senior
lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology, at the
Seminar Organisation
Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary. If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact Xiaodong Li, the seminar co-ordinator.