Teaching and learning recursive programming: a review of the research literature

Abstract

Hundreds of articles have been published on the topics of teaching and learning recursion, yet fewer than 50 of them have published research results. This article surveys the computing education research literature and presents findings on challenges students encounter in learning recursion, mental models students develop as they learn recursion, and best practices in introducing recursion. Effective strategies for introducing the topic include using different contexts such as recurrence relations, programming examples, fractal images, and a description of how recursive methods are processed using a call stack. Several studies compared the efficacy of introducing iteration before recursion and vice versa. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research into how students learn and understand recursion, including a look at the possible impact of instructor attitude and newer pedagogies.

Keywords:

• recursion
• programming
• research
• teaching
• learning
• mental models
• student misconceptions
• pedagogy

Acknowledgments

We thank Brian Hanks for comments that helped to shape this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. See Rinderknecht (2014) for commentary on more than 250 writings related to recursive programming.