Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Abstract

Various teaching strategies have been employed in attempting to overcome t he difficulties experienced by students learning computer programming on courses held at the Bedford Co ll ege of Hi gher Educatio n, England . The prob l em remains unsolved; the ma in difficulty encountered lies in the development of the algorithm , not in the syntax or semantics of the language . The con tri bution gained by the use of flowcharts has been neg li g i ble ; t he major contribu ti on came from a llowin g the s tud ents to work in groups . The essay follows the a r gument that, accept i ng the premise that programming requires logica l thinking, a so luti on to this problem may be forthcom i ng if it i s tackled by help in g these students t o develop problem so lvin g ski ll s from an ear l y age ; thereb y placing the onus on t he schoo ltea cher . Use of educa ti ona l tool s , na me l y BIGTRAK, initia ll y fo r the very young, followed by the TURTLE with LO GO pro gramming , and l atte rl y microPro lo g is advoca t ed . The paper is introdu ced by a br i ef discourse on the concep t of knowledge, in order t o confirm that to teach thin k in g i s difficult, and hence that th e re is a rol e fo r some aspect of artif icial intelli ge nce in the c las sroom.