Education of the New Generation Computer Science Students

In this paper the five major paradigms and their different theories and models are examined. A questionnaire was developed to determine the students’ perceptions of aspects of the different paradigms. The results imply that none of the paradigms is more important than the others. Each theory is complemented by the other. Aspects of behaviourism that the students’ felt was important were the atmosphere in the class and goal setting. Factors of the cognitivism paradigm that stood out were that students like to relate new knowledge to current knowledge and they remember things better when they know how things fit into the big picture. Factors of the constructivism paradigm that stood out were, once again, the atmosphere in the class and active involvement that enables students to learn better. There were a few factors of the design based paradigm that stood out, for example rewarding students for good behaviour, and the fact that some students prefer visual learning while others prefer verbal learning. The paper ends with recommendations that may be used to improve the teaching and learning of Computer Science students.