Learning Compiler Design as a Research Activity

This paper describes the application of a pedagogical model called \learning as a research activity" [D. Gil-P erez and J. Carrascosa-Alis, Science Education 78 (1994) 301{315] to the design and implementation of a two-semester course on compiler design for Computer Engineering students. In the new model, the classical pattern of classroom activity based mainly on one-way knowledge transmission/reception of pre-elaborated concepts is replaced by an active working environment that resembles that of a group of novice researchers under the supervision of an expert. The new model, rooted in the now commonly-accepted constructivist postulates, strives for meaningful acquisition of fundamental concepts through problem solving |in close parallelism to the construction of scienti c knowledge through history.