An Ability-oriented Approach for Teaching Programming Courses

This Research-to-Practice Work-In-Progress paper proposed a multidimensional ability-oriented approach for teaching program with the integration of outcome-oriented, student-centered, project-based and contest-driven. The main contributions were: (1) proposed an Ability-Driven Programming Model (ADPM) from two-dimensions of knowledge taxonomy and practice taxonomy which refined Bloom Taxonomy and defined computer programming ability from four hierarchical levels, they are basic ability, comprehensive ability, engineering ability and innovative ability; (2) designed an improved student-centered pattern to reconstructed contents to make each topic associated with six objectives in Bloom's taxonomy and explored some facts to verify the effect of both student-centered teaching and learning; (3) adopted a project-driven method based on Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate to solve complex engineering problems and elaborated on how to design good projects and how to measure the quality of projects in detail. Finally, analysis conducted using survey questionnaires and classroom videos indicates that use of Ability-Driven methodology has motivated students to become active learners and improved engineering practice ability. The Ability-Driven methodology provides an applicable model for a student-centered teaching pedagogy to cultivate students' engineering habits and teach them to think like an engineer.