Computer science students' concepts of proof by induction
Thérèse Smith, Robert McCartney · 2014
Critical aspects, obtained from from phenomenographic analysis, provide us clues how to help students advance from one conceptualization to a more comprehensive and nuanced one. We present results of applying Marton's phenomenographic research perspective to computer science students' understanding of proof by induction and how it relates to their use of recursive algorithms. We obtain categories of students' conceptions of proof by induction, and of the applicability of recursive algorithms. From the categories we infer critical aspects of this material, which may be taught over three courses, for example, discrete systems, introductory programming and data structures. These critical aspects suggest how to help students, efficiently, to transfer concepts from these three courses to a unified understanding.