The use of analogy in teaching computer literacy

Includes bibliographical references (pages 168-170)In computer science there are many concepts which are relatively simple, but appear complex when described in the technical language and jargon. This makes it rather difficult for the beginners to understand and learn these concepts. Since analogies are often used processes or concepts, this thesis to clarify attempts to complex derive analogies for use in explaining selected computer science concepts, based on similarities with other familiar concepts or ???real-life??? activities.\ud About 70 analogies were compiled for use in the beginning courses on the following computer science material: data structures, data bases, architecture, operating systems, and networks. The analogies were evaluated in the spring semester, 1985, in several lower division computer science classes at the California State University, Northridge. Nearly all of the analogies were judged as ???very good??? or ???good??? by the instructors, and as ???clear??? by a large majority of the students, thus reinforcing the hypothesis that use of analogies is an effective teaching paradigm. A set of guidelines for deriving effective analogies was formulated, based on experience gained