Insights and Conflicts in Discussing Recursion: A Case Study

Abstract

Recursion is a significant concept, appearing in almost every introductory course in Computer Science (CS). CS educators and educational researchers often refer to difficulties in learning and teaching recursion. However, the research literature barely addresses the unique ways in which students relate to this interdisciplinary concept and the particular learners’ language concerning recursive phenomena. The gap is most apparent when seen through a constructivist lens, where the students’ prior knowledge and idiosyncratic conceptions should be referred to and reflected upon in order to serve as a basis for further knowledge construction. This paper reports on a study in which a collaborative classification of several recursive phenomena are used to facilitate the construction of recursion. The student discourse was recorded and analyzed, and a grounded categorical system was formed and examined. Preliminary results indicate some basic aspects of recursion in the student discourse, although the students apparently talk a very different language from that of the experts. Some ‘potentially rich’ discourse episodes were evident as well, representing conflicts among alternative conceptions. Such episodes can serve as a springboard for further learning.