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22 2 MULTI-SENSORY COMPUTER SCIENCE EDUCATION algorithm behind the program may be the third-level abstraction. In addition, the generally applied problem-solving process (1. abstraction, 2. decomposition, 3. transformation into sub-solutions, 4. recomposition into a working program, 5. evaluation) also starts with abstracting the problem from its description. Therefore, an important question we have addressed is the following: How can CS teachers handle the problem of the abstractness of the programming process? The high-level abstractness itself suggests that the effectiveness of this kind of educational processes can be increased by a multiple-senses approach. A relevant example in this sense is the success of the Making Math Real curriculum (Berg & Knop, 2008). The Making Math Real: Connecting Research to Practice -— A Comprehensive Multisensory Structured Methodology in Mathematics K-12 workshop reviewed the work of Giedd, Sowell, Deheane, Butterworth, Geary, and others in the areas of neuroscience and cognitive science, combined with the work of Miller, Mercer, Tomey, Marolda, Orton-Gillingham, and others for the connections to the cognitive benefits of multi-sensory structured methods. Their conclusion is that these results can be considered as a research basis for the multi-sensory structured teaching methodologies. Since students’ difficulties in learning scientific concepts, mathematics, and computer algorithms are closely related, the research referred above suggests that multi-sensory approach can be efficient in the case of algorithm design too. In the following, for further support, we detail our literature review in the field of multi-sensory education. 2.2 Brain-based (multi-sensory) learning Revolutionary discoveries in neuroscience and important developments in cognitive psychology have resulted in new ways of thinking about the relationship between senses and learning. It is more and more evident that our brain is organized to elaborate information, coming from the different sensory channels, cooperatively, in order to have a complete vision of reality (Voto, Vinas, & D’Auria, 2005). Although much traditional sensory research has studied each sensory modality separately, there has been a recent surge of interest in causal interplay between different senses (Driver & Noesselt, 2008). Everything we know we have learned by using our senses. Each sense, either singularly or in various combinations, provides a pathway to learning. While each sense is important in itself, our senses are designed to function in harmony. Kinaesthesia has been defined as “the feedback mechanism of the nervous system which conveys information between the mind and the body” and what coordinates “our senses of hearing, sight, and touch; our faculties of knowing and reasoning; our ability to feel and to act on our feelings” (DSA, 2020; TPUB, 2020).
