A Student-Centered Approach to the Discrete Mathematics Curriculum

Discrete mathematics is a foundational course in the undergraduate computer science curriculum. Despite its long history in the curriculum, the literature and our student surveys show that students find the topics of proofs and discrete probability significantly more difficult than other topics in the course. The need for pedagogical interventions is pronounced yet the current body of literature largely consists of instructor experience reports with interventions, creating a significant gap in the literature for student voice and data-driven design. To address this gap in the literature, I propose a mixed-methods study designed in three phases: (1) compare student, instructional faculty, and literature perceptions; (2) a quasi-experimental design involving two data- and pedagogically-based interventions; and (3) an analysis and additional focus group with students designed to understand and track student motivations and perceptions of the course and the efficacy of contextualizing discrete mathematics in computer science. The findings of this dissertation research are expected to contribute to the inclusion of student voice into the DM research literature and a comparative mapping of student and instructional faculty DM perceptions, two scalable data-designed interventions, empirical evidence for the efficacy of the interventions, and evidence-based guidance on the creation of curricula pieces in discrete mathematics for computer science majors.