Pedagogical Pattern #39
Group Card Sorting Pattern
(Version 1.0)
Jeanine Meyer
Pace University
One Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038 USA meyer@pace.edu
Name:
Group Card Sorting
Intent:
To help students understand what is required to express a procedure, the complexities of
concurrent versus sequential processing, and, specifically, to provide an introduction to
sorting.
Motivation:
Students, especially beginning students, have little sense of what a
procedure or algorithm is. They do not appreciate that each step needs to be specified.
Students also tend to believe that there is only one way to do something. Concurrent operations
are especially complex and this can serve as an introduction (and just an introduction).
Applicability:
This pattern can be done as a general introduction in an introductory
computing class or later in programming or data structures classes when the students have
more background. In the latter case, everything would be more rigorous. The sorting of
playing cards can be replaced by the sorting of something else, such as a class list
or a set of numbers.
Structure:
Students are put into groups. For card sorting, seven or eight works
well. Students are told to determine a fast way to put shuffled cards in order, making
use of the fact that there are multiple processors, that is, people with minds, eyes, and
fingers, to do the work. Groups then present their methods.
Consequences:
Students must accept the fact that the teacher is asking them to be
more specific than is their general pattern of thinking. The fact that the specificity is a
real thing becomes apparent when they realize that there are different ways to
accomplish the same task.
Implementation:
The teacher distributes decks of cards and asks the students to shuffle
them. The cards are described as props only. The teacher generally needs to emphasize
that I do not need these decks of cards put in order. What I do need is for you to
articulate a procedure that works effectively.
Resources Needed:
Decks of cards or other sets of objects to be sorted.
Related Patterns:
This is related to a common classroom programming pattern of having the students act out
an algorithm.