Combining Mastery Learning with Project-Based Learning in a First Programming Course: An Experience Report

Abstract

One of the challenges in teaching a first programming course is that in the same course, the students must learn basic programming techniques and high level abstraction abilities, and the application of those techniques and concepts in problem solving and (engineering) design. To confront this challenge, in previous years, we have included a project-based learning phase at the end of our course to encourage the acquisition of high level design and creativity. To address some of the shortcomings of our previous editions, we have recently included a mastery phase to the course. While project-based learning is suitable for teaching high-level skills that require design and creativity and prepare the students for the study of software engineering, mastery-based learning is suitable for concrete skills such as basic programming tasks. Our particular innovation is to allow students into the project phase only if they have demonstrated a minimum predefined competency level in programming. The combination of the two approaches seems to address most of the requirements of a first programming course. We present our motivation for combining the two pedagogical techniques and our experience with the course.