The introductory programming course in computer science

Abstract

The first course in the overwhelming majority of Computer Science Departments is an introductor y course in high-level language programming Because of this a number of papers have appeared, i n the SIGCSE Bulletin and elsewhere, describing details of the introductory programming course at a numbe r of schools . These papers are useful in comparing one ' s own approach with that of other schools and possibly learning from them . This paper presents what we feel are the ten essential objectives of an initial programming course in Computer Science , regardless of who is teaching or where it is being taught . It attempts to provide an in-depth, philosophical framework for the course called CSI --Computer Programming I --as described by the ACM Curriculu m Committee on Computer Science . [4] From these ten principles will come the skeletal outline of a course .