Why computer science students find formal reasoning frightening

Abstract This paper focuses on difficulties which first‐year undergraduate computer science students experience in learning formal reasoning techniques. The main findings from an empirical investigation are reported. These indicated that, in the student population studied, many of those difficulties stemmed from a combination of the mathematical content of the courses and the students' unfamiliarity with formal notations and language. The paper concludes by discussing a selection of computer‐based tools which have been selected to address these difficulties.