Teaching Algorithms to Develop the Algorithmic Thinking of Informatics Students

Dalibor Gonda, Viliam Ďuriš (), Anna Tirpáková and Gabriela Pavlovičová
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Dalibor Gonda: Department of Mathematical Methods and Operations Research, Faculty of Management Science and Informatics, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 01001 Žilina, Slovakia
Viliam Ďuriš: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 94901 Nitra, Slovakia
Anna Tirpáková: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 94901 Nitra, Slovakia
Gabriela Pavlovičová: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra, Tr. A. Hlinku 1, 94901 Nitra, Slovakia

Mathematics, 2022, vol. 10, issue 20, 1-13

Abstract: Modernization and the ever-increasing trend of introducing modern technologies into various areas of everyday life require school graduates with programming skills. The ability to program is closely related to computational thinking, which is based on algorithmic thinking. It is well known that algorithmic thinking is the ability of students to work with algorithms understood as a systematic description of problem-solving strategies. Algorithms can be considered as a fundamental phenomenon that forms a point of contact between mathematics and informatics. As part of an algorithmic graph theory seminar, we conducted an experiment where we solved the knight’s tour problem using the backtracking method to observe the change in students’ motivation to learn algorithms at a higher cognitive level. Seventy-four students participated in the experiment. Statistical analysis of the results of the experiment confirmed that the use of the algorithm with decision-making in teaching motivated students to learn algorithms with understanding.

Keywords: backtracking; computational thinking; heuristics; knight’s tour problem; learning algorithms; problem solving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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