Mojtaba Ammari-Allahyari
Institute of Education-University of Warwick
Abstract
_In this study, I examine students’ appreciation of the relationship between recursion and iteration, including how they perceive the intra-relationship of the components within those processes. My approach is to design a logo-based microworld, which acts as a window on the students’ thinking. In this environment, the students model trees and fractal-shape objects.
I use a design-based research methodology in order to gain insights into students’ understanding and design issues of the software. These early results show that having a clear understanding of the relation between recursion and iteration and of the flow of control are important in understanding the recursion itself. In addition, functional abstraction is a key concept in dealing with recursion. In the light of these results, I am planning to open up the software such that students will be able to engage with recursion at two levels, namely “functionality” and “functionnings”._
Keywords
Logo, recursion, functional abstraction, fractal, modelling, design-based research
The main page of my microworld?
This paper presented in BSRLM conference on 11th of June in Open University and will be published here very soon.