Exploring Recursion Pedagogies: Innovative Strategies and Their Effects on Engineering Students

Recursion, a fundamental concept in computer science and engineering, presents both challenges and opportunities for new learners. This paper explores innovative teaching methodologies and empirical insights from a study to enhance freshmen engineering students’ understanding of recursion. Additionally, we integrated a prototype study to illustrate the practical application of recursion in real-world scenarios, aiming to deepen student engagement and comprehension. A total of 57 students were divided into four groups (traditional learning - group 1, physical activities - group 2, recursion creator - group 3 and tower of Hanoi problem solving - group 4) consisting of 15,15,14, and 13 students, each taught with a different approach. For each of the groups, a pre-study, and a post-study assessment was taken. Results of this activity were observed and analyzed. It showed that using innovative approaches such as physical activities and the recursion creator improved the understanding of recursion, while the isolated problem solving was not as effective and impactful among the students.