Rethinking pedagogy for teaching PL with more than PL concepts in mind

Depending on individual department goals, undergraduate computer science educators teach theoretical concepts and skills with varying priorities on preparing students for continuing to graduate school or embarking on a career that leverages their education immediately after college. Programming languages play a key role in that education for both student profiles, even in curricula that include no core programming language concepts course. The "fattening" of our discipline into many subareas has prompted curricula reviews and rethinking of the undergraduate CS content, including programming language concepts (PL) and where they are taught in the curriculum. This paper proposes that we also rethink the pedagogy for teaching PL with diversity in mind.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SIGPLAN
• Authors: Lori L. Pollock
• Keywords: Core Programming Language, Individual Department Goals, Programming Language, SIGPLAN 2008, System Software