Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

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need to deal with. Students learned in a one-month course how to adjust a defined problem to available skills, discover workarounds while progressing to a solution, and work in teams to meet deadlines. APDT supported by virtualization allowed the students to think outside the box and experiment with multiple options instead of following a traditional approach to a single solution (Romney, 2009). Use Case Problem Definition The use case was a project that involved completing the development of an interpreter for a simple calculator language. The students used problem-driven techniques to learn the concepts of programming language grammars, scanners, parsers and Abstract Syntax Trees (AST). An AST is an intermediate form that is passed from the front end to the back end in the process of language semantic analysis. A parser builds an AST by removing irrelevant nodes from the tree's interior (Scott, 2006). An AST is also known as an Annotated Syntax Tree because the remaining nodes are then annotated by the parser with useful information, called node attributes. In our case, the language and the implementation road map were partially provided for the students from Lee (2008). Figure 2 shows the LL(1) calculator language grammar that was used for implementing the project. Figure 2. LL(1) Calculator Language Grammar Used in the Use Case Project An LL(1) grammar is one that can be parsed by predictive parsers that need to look only one symbol ahead in the input stream to determine the next parsing action decisions. Predictive parsers are recursive-decent parsers that need no backtracking. LL(1) stands for Left-to-right Left-most derivation with one input symbol look-ahead (Aho, Lam, Sethi, & Ullman, 2007). The LL(1) grammar was used to build a parser that returns an AST for the parsed expression. The AST was used to evaluate the parsed expression. The overall data flow of the calculator interpreter is shown in Figure 3. An expression goes through the scanner which does the lexical analysis. The scanner returns tokens to the parser. The parser uses the tokens to create an AST. The AST is then traversed to get the value of the expression (Lee, 2008). Figure 3 The Calculator Language Interpreter Involves Different Concepts That The Students Learned Through Agile Problem Driven Teaching In One Month with Ruby 67
The problem involves dealing with operator precedence. According to the calculator language grammar, the highest precedence is for parenthesis. Parentheses appear in the last production of the grammar, as shown in Figure 2. The recall operation, denoted by the letter R, is of the same high precedence. It makes sense to start by replacing an R with its value from the calculator memory before we evaluate other parts of the expression. However, an R operator can only appear after we use an S operator, or a store operator. The S operator stores the value of the token that is to the left of it into the calculator memory. When an S operator is used in an expression, we can use an R operator somewhere after it. As one would expect, the grammar is set as to have multiplication and division with higher precedence than addition and subtraction. Since the calculator grammar is an LL(1) grammar, associativity of operators goes from left to right. The Solution To implement the simple calculator language interpreter, students had to learn important programming language concepts. The project involved the implementation of a scanner, a parser, and an abstract syntax tree. The students had to deliver the project in three weeks. With such a time constraint, APDT proved to be a practical major success. Students were able to learn the course objectives and deliver the project deliverables on-time. They learned to use Agile Project Management techniques that made them adjust quickly and dynamically according to project progress and time frames. The skills learned and used throughout the use case are skills that every IT professional needs to master in today's accelerated Internet-time workplace (Romney, 2009). The students do not learn the course subject alone, but the best practices and techniques used in the industry. Using cutting-edge technologies, such as virtualization, and the latest teaching methodologies, such as APDT, allows for efficient resource management that results in increased productivity in less time. Redefining the Problem The APDT nature of the use case allowed the students to redefine the problem in hand. The problem was redefined from “implementing a calculator language interpreter” to “implementing a scanner, and a parser with an abstract syntax tree that would work together to evaluate an expression according to the calculator language grammar.” This redefinition identified three major milestones that can be used to break the problem into three subprojects. A smaller problem is easier to handle and can, in turn, be subdivided without affecting the other subprojects. Another key concept students learned and dealt with was the integration of the solution for each subproject to achieve a viable solution to the main problem at hand. All of these are critical project management concepts essential in the workplace. The LL(1) grammar was used to build a parser that returns an AST for the parsed expression. The AST was used to evaluate the parsed expression. The overall data flow of the calculator interpreter is shown in Figure 3. An expression goes through the scanner that does the lexical analysis. The scanner returns tokens to the parser. The parser uses the tokens to create an AST. The AST is then traversed to get the value of the expression (Lee, 2008). Putting the Pieces Together Building and integrating the use case project was simplified by using the virtual labs. Students were able to have isolated development environments for each sub-project that ensured modification to one would not affect the others. The virtual labs allowed the students to 68
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Journal of Research in Innovative T
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Table of Contents Editor’s Column
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Editor’s Column National Universi
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training-based method for integrati
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The Editorial Board invites the rea
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The Influence of Social Worlds on E
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experience in a strong group settin
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Table 1 Example Scenario of a Burea
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hierarchy ensures a social position
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(see Figure 5). Each member is affo
Page 22 and 23: through four types of instructional
Page 24 and 25: Hierarchic (high grid, strong Group
Page 26 and 27: Figure 10. Didactic Task Structure
Page 28 and 29: Stansberry, S., & Harris, E. (2005)
Page 30 and 31: Utilizing current research-based co
Page 32 and 33: teachers. The instructor kept a mas
Page 34 and 35: References Coburn, C. E. (2001). Co
Page 36 and 37: Organizing for Instruction Carefull
Page 38 and 39: Accelerated Learning 33
Page 40 and 41: the learning process but rather to
Page 42 and 43: Csikszentmihalyi (1982) has written
Page 44 and 45: term (intersession) gets its name b
Page 46 and 47: Some Important Issues Scott and Con
Page 48 and 49: esponsibilities). A higher percenta
Page 50 and 51: them in such a way that the likelih
Page 52 and 53: makes a valuable contribution to ou
Page 54 and 55: North American Association of Summe
Page 56 and 57: E-learning 51
Page 58 and 59: Academic Learning Today Academic in
Page 60 and 61: In the original publication by the
Page 62 and 63: • Individual (1) — Group (2) co
Page 64 and 65: Challenges and Opportunities From t
Page 66 and 67: About the Authors Cynthia (Cindy) L
Page 68 and 69: AGILE TEACHING: A CASE STUDY OF USI
Page 70 and 71: the scope-by-name feature of Ruby e
Page 74 and 75: experiment with different options f
Page 76 and 77: the students evaluate the optimum s
Page 78 and 79: Using Bibliotherapy as a Tool for C
Page 80 and 81: different clients and their present
Page 82 and 83: supervisees with a brief synopsis o
Page 84 and 85: Stick Figure, by Lori Gottlieb As t
Page 86 and 87: psychological awareness to encourag
Page 88 and 89: on the Internet. To keep the classr
Page 90 and 91: The third portion of the discussion
Page 92 and 93: Henry, S. (2005). A different appro
Page 94 and 95: elementary-age students. Linked wit
Page 96 and 97: considered in multicultural literat
Page 98 and 99: In Finding One, the conclusion was
Page 100 and 101: Stephanie: “I learned that some p
Page 102 and 103: importance in society and in school
Page 104 and 105: published in the United States. Ret
Page 106 and 107: Reading Practices in Elementary Sch
Page 108 and 109: groups of students reading by apply
Page 110 and 111: Table 2 Participant-Reported Teachi
Page 112 and 113: Table 5A Teachers’ Reading Task P
Page 114 and 115: Because electronic texts are increa
Page 116 and 117: Conclusion As teachers work to impr
Page 118 and 119: Bilingual Education and Second Lang
Page 120 and 121: successful in hiring enough qualifi
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Five Innovative Strategies That Wor
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The third strategy is “Determinin
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the categories, synthesized and def
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Fereshteh, M. H. (1995). Multicultu
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Can Balanced Bilingualism Be Achiev
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As may be seen from this discussion
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Alternatives to Current Methodologi
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education when students are isolate
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Conclusion SL learning must be a tw
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Language as Tool for a Global Educa
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encouraging passive learning. Such
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Similarly, their actions or what go
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should therefore not be glued to th
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Supplementary Reading Since there i
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Bruce, M. G., Podemski, R. S., & An
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• Sentence combination (using con
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The Motivational and Attitudinal Ch
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Other researchers have challenged t
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education classes were taught in Ru
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Participants also described how the
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Implications and Suggestions for Fu
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National University Carlsbad, CA Em
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Assessment and Evaluation 161
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affordance of opportunities for sel
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An examination of the peer-comment
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language used in the description an
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promotes self-discovery (Saulnier e
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Appendix A Sample Language from an
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Student Evaluations of Courses and
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that there is a consistent positive
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(teaching) for all classes (11 item
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Figure 1. The Nonlinear Relationshi
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About the Authors Nataliya Serdyuko
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Best Practices 183
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The Textbook Elementary Statistics
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If the mean number of visits was as
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discussion in such courses is slow;
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Table 1. A grade list for a class o
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Sloboda, B. W. (2005). Improving th
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The Journal of Research in Innovati
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About the Author In the end of your
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