Resumen de Bridging over problems of learning in finding strongly connected components
M. Ashraf Iqbal, Yasser Hashmi
Understanding the processes that takes place inside the human mind-while it is thinking and learning- has remained an elusive exercise mostly because of lack of powerful research tools and techniques. Now because of recent advances in various branches of science dealing with mind and brain, it has become possible to better understand the processes of thinking and learning. For example research from cognitive psychology has considerably increased our understanding of the principles of knowledge organization that govern people's abilities to learn, understand and create new knowledge. It is perhaps the right time to apply these developments in the study of learning to help people to think and read critically, to express themselves clearly and persuasively, and to solve complex problems. In this paper we would be applying tools and techniques of science of learning to determine why an algorithm to find Strongly Connected Components (SCC) in a directed graph (in the field of graph algorithms) is particularly hard to understand. We shall try to find why one finds difficulty in learning and fails to find a solution to this problem even if one has all the prerequisite knowledge as well as the motivation to do it. We shall in fact be finding possible missing links in the knowledge map of a learner without which it is almost impossible to find meaning behind the algorithm. We shall substantiate our claims by analyzing student performances in an examination, and also by conducting a number of structured interviews.
