Describes experiences with a Keller-style computer studies course for future mathematics teachers. Aspects of the implementation are detailed, the motivation for thoughts behind the course are discussed, and the evaluation of student performance is supplemented by students' reactions to the course as measured by a semantic differential.…

Discusses the teaching consultant process in computer programing courses, describes a teaching consultant model from both the teachers' and students' perspectives, and shows how this model can be used to develop an intelligent teaching consultant (ITC). Differences between this collection of expert systems and conventional intelligent tutoring…

BASIC programing was taught to 95 undergraduates from a manual emphasizing the language's syntax or from a manual that included additional material on the underlying semantics. Both approaches produced equivalent learning of syntactic features of BASIC; however, semantically trained students developed fewer misconceptions and performed better on…

Reports results of two studies that compared the introduction of procedural (exemplified by Pascal) and declarative (exemplified by Prolog) programing languages to Italian secondary school students. Discussion covers learning approaches and problems, mental models, programing techniques, programing environments, and educational applications. (27…

This curriculum guide outlines a course on computer literacy for junior or senior high school students reflecting the technology of the early 1980s. A chart shows computer literacy scope and sequence for students in kindergarten, grades 1-2, grades 3-6, and grades 7-9. Forty lessons for the intermediate grades and high school are then presented,…

These papers describe efforts toward the systematic improvement of a software environment called SOLO (Eisenstadt, 1978), which has been used with cognitive psychology students at the Open University in Great Britain and is geared towards the manipulation of assertional databases. The first paper, by Eisenstadt, Laubsch, and Kahney, provides an…

The average of student evaluations for each section of a computer programming course correlated positively with the average of student performance on a standardized final examination. A multisection method, with randomized assignment of instructors to conditions, was used and an unconfounded comparison between feedback and nonfeedback conditions…

Four conference papers are reviewed in this introduction to a symposium. The first paper is by Clements and Merriman, who make a case for the reflection of Steinberg's information processing componential model of cognitive processes in the LOGO language and computational environment; present a series of experiments that attempted to tailor the…

The Certificate in Data Processing (CDP) Examination conducted by the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals (ICCP) is one of the qualifications for the CDP. The May 1981 administration tested 3,601 candidates at 149 international test sites. Half of the candidates were taking the examination for the first time and were taking all…

These curriculum materials are designed for teachers of students in grades six through nine to use to teach general computer literacy and rudimentary programming in BASIC. Sections on history, what microcomputers can do, and computer anatomy have been written so they can be copied and placed in the hands of the students in the intended audience,…

In this paper a hardware/software system is described which permits the use of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I as a tachistoscope in perceptual-cognitive research. Hardware requirements and configuration, problems in developing software routines to handle reaction and stimulus timing using the TRS-80, and the development of a routine for…

Computer programing and problem-solving steps in mathematics are viewed to have related concepts. Some heuristics are compared with some suggestions for structured programing. The one fundamental difference between problem solving in general and when using the computer is seen as the computer solution must be finite. The computer is viewed as a…

The question at hand is: Can a computer program be copyrighted, patented, or protected as a trade secret? All three protective methods are examined, with special attention paid to the advantages and disadvantages of each pertinent to computer program protection. The scope of the protection and relevant case law are considered. The paper concludes…

This paper describes PAL--a new computer language. It is used as a pedagogical vehicle in an undergraduate subject called "Programming Linguistics." This subject is designed primarily for sophomores who anticipate a major professional interest in computer science and has two objectives. The first is to study linguistic constructs for the…

The potentialities of specialized languages, in comparison to those of other types of specialized systems, are discussed. The point is made that these languages have been invented by information processing professionals in order to assist the problem-solving activities of computer users by providing them with appropriate interfaces to the…