Teaching Algorithms to Develop the Algorithmic Thinking of Informatics Students

Modernization and the ever-increasing trend of introducing modern technologies into various areas of everyday life require school graduates with programming skills. The ability to program is closely related to computational thinking, which is based on algorithmic thinking. It is well known that algo...

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Published inMathematics (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 20; p. 3857
Main Authors Gonda, Dalibor, Ďuriš, Viliam, Tirpáková, Anna, Pavlovičová, Gabriela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2022
Subjects
Algorithms
backtracking
computational thinking
Decision making
Didacticism
Educational aspects
Graph theory
heuristics
Informatics
Information science
knight’s tour problem
Learning
learning algorithms
Mathematics
Modernization
Problem solving
Skills
Statistical analysis
Students
Study and teaching
Teaching
Thought and thinking
Slovakia
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Summary:Modernization and the ever-increasing trend of introducing modern technologies into various areas of everyday life require school graduates with programming skills. The ability to program is closely related to computational thinking, which is based on algorithmic thinking. It is well known that algorithmic thinking is the ability of students to work with algorithms understood as a systematic description of problem-solving strategies. Algorithms can be considered as a fundamental phenomenon that forms a point of contact between mathematics and informatics. As part of an algorithmic graph theory seminar, we conducted an experiment where we solved the knight’s tour problem using the backtracking method to observe the change in students’ motivation to learn algorithms at a higher cognitive level. Seventy-four students participated in the experiment. Statistical analysis of the results of the experiment confirmed that the use of the algorithm with decision-making in teaching motivated students to learn algorithms with understanding.
ISSN:2227-7390
2227-7390
DOI:10.3390/math10203857