Increase Performance in CS 2 via a Spiral Redesign of CS 1

Abstract

Computer Science (CS 1) offerings in most universities tend to be notoriously difficult. Over the past 60 years about a third of the students either fail or drop out of the course. Past research has focused on improving teaching methods through small changes without changing the overall course structure. The premise of our research is that restructuring the CS 1 course using a Spiral pedagogy based on principles for improving memory and recall can help students learn the information and retain it for future courses. Using the principles of Spacing, Interleaving, Elaboration, Practiced Retrieval, and Reflection, we fundamentally redesigned CS 1 with a complete reordering of topics. We evaluated the newly designed CS 1 by comparing the students with those coming from a traditional offering in terms of (1) CS 1 performance, (2) retention of students between CS 1 and 2, and (3) CS 2 performance. We demonstrate that the Spiral method helped students outperform those who learn via the traditional method by 9% on final exam scores in CS 1. Retention is increased between CS 1 and CS 2 with a 19.2% increase for women, and 9.2% overall. Furthermore, students continue to do better in CS 2 with increased grades across all assessments and show a 15% increase in passing grades. We provide a framework for the Spiral methodology so that others may replicate the design. Our results lead us to consider evaluating and improving the underlying methodology with which we teach Computer Science.