Learning computer science in the "comfort zone of proximal development"
Nicole D. Anderson, Tim Gegg-Harrison · 2013
As computer science faculty, we are always looking for better ways to recruit and retain new majors. One way to achieve this goal is to incorporate material into the introductory courses that lies within the intersection of the student's "zone of proximal development" (which contains concepts that the student is capable of understanding) and "comfort zone" (which contains concepts that motivate the student and are presented in a way in which the student is familiar and comfortable). We refer to this region as the "comfort zone of proximal development." In this paper, we present a "comfort zone of proximal development" that we have created for computer science students which consists of a collaborative learning environment where programming concepts are introduced with gaming applications.