Events and objects first: an innovative approach to teaching JAVA in CS 1
Kim B. Bruce, Andrea Danyluk, Thomas P. Murtagh · Journal of computing sciences in colleges · 2001
As many have learned by experience, teaching a CS 1 course in Java requires an entirely new approach. Because it is an object-oriented language, it is difficult to teach it in the style used for imperative languages like Pascal, C, and C++. Many have proposed teaching Java in an objects-first way, but others have complained that too many concepts must be introduced before students can understand the construction of classes and objects. This three hour workshop is focused on a new approach to teaching Java that we have developed at Williams College over the last two years that overcomes these problems. Our design goals in developing the course were: Use an object-first approach, requiring students to think from the start about the programming process with a focus on methods and objects. Use graphics and animation extensively. Introduce event-driven programming early. Introduce concurrency early as a natural extension of single-threaded execution and as a way to simplify the interaction of objects.