Design as an Introduction to Computer Science in High School

计算机编程在小学和中学教育中非常受欢迎，因为它已经成为一种强大的工具，通过它，孩子们可以培养解决一般问题的能力，学习数学、物理和物流的基本概念，以及获得对计算机科学的基本理解。不幸的是，评估这些说法的研究发现，学生没有获得足够的编程能力，作为发展一般问题解决技能的基础。此外，研究和软件设计专家的实践经验都表明，对问题域的分析和软件总体计划的设计对软件开发来说比学习编码更重要。学习强调设计的编程课程的学生比其他课程的学生学得更多，但他们在解决一般问题方面仍然没有什么进步。最近发展的技术已经简化了分析和设计阶段之间的关系，使得无需先教学生如何编码就可以教他们软件设计成为可能。本项目建议教授无需编码的设计，并批判性地评估这种方法的有效性。如果成功，这个项目将作为一个模型，既可以用于计算机科学入门课程，也可以用于计算机素养课程。

Computer programming has gained great popularity in elementary and secondary education because it has been as a powerful tool by which children can develop general problem solving skills and learn fundamental concepts in mathematics, physics, and logistics, as well acquiring foundational understanding of computer science. Unfortunately, research assessing these claims has found that students fail to attain sufficient programming competence to serve as a basis for the development of general problem solving skills. In addition, both research and the practical experiences of expert software designers have suggested that the analysis of the problem domain and the design of an overall plan of the software are more central to the development of software than is learning to code. Students in programming courses that emphasize design learn more than students in other courses, but they still show little progress toward general problem solving. Recently developed technology has simplified the relation between the analysis and design phase, making it feasible to teach students software design without first teaching them how to code. This project proposes to teach design without coding and to evaluate critically the efficacy of such an approach. If successful, this project will serve as a model that can be developed both for introductory computer science courses and for computer literacy courses.