Some pedagogical elements of computer programming for data science: A comparison of three approaches to teaching the R language

Abstract

Educational curricula in data analysis are increasingly fundamental to statistics, data science, and a wide range of disciplines. The educational literature comparing coding syntaxes for instruction in data analysis recommends utilizing a simple syntax for introductory coursework. However, there is limited prior work to assess the pedagogical elements of coding syntaxes. The study investigates the paradigms of the dplyr, data.table, and DTwrappers packages for R programming from a pedagogical perspective. We enumerate the pedagogical elements of computer programming that are inherent to utilizing each package, including the functions, operators, general knowledge, and specialized knowledge. The merits of each package are also considered in concert with other pedagogical goals, such as computational efficiency and extensions to future coursework. The pedagogical considerations of this study can help instructors make informed choices about their curriculum and how best to teach their selected methods.