A Curated Inventory of Programming Language Misconceptions

Chiodini, Luca; Santos, Igor Moreno; Gallidabino, Andrea; Tafliovich, Anya; Santos, André L.; Hauswirth, Matthias

doi:10.1145/3430665.3456343

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is done by assigning index numbers to individual data values present in the array. While this is necessary for effective data retrieval, the fact that indexes start with zero is particularly confusing for those just starting to program [28]. Whittall et al [29] argue that programs like Scratch exacerbates this confusion by indexing the first element of the array as one instead of zero.…”

Section: A Issues Faced When Learning Computer Programmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is to highlight that variables can only store one instead of 2 values, which is a common misconception that students have [22], [23], [24]. Another common misconception highlighted in the developed VR experience are the starting index for both list and 2D arrays, which is commonly regarded as 1 instead of 0 [28], [29]. Hence, this module also addresses the gaps from existing works, where misconceptions have never been addressed in VR (Table 1).…”

Section: B Mitigating Misconceptions Of Programming Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

iProgVR: Design of a Virtual Reality Environment to Improve Introductory Programming Learning

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Currently, there are a plethora of solutions developed to help students learn the basics of programming. However, there is a relative paucity of solutions that cater to problems students face when learning programming that is mainly caused by the abstract nature of programming, misconceptions of programming concepts, and lack of motivation. Hence, in this study, a framework to address the abstract nature of programming and common programming misconceptions is developed. The framework consists of three modules that correspond to each issue, powered by a simulation engine. The first module is developed to address the abstract nature of programming by representing programming concepts with concrete objects in the virtual environment. The second module employs simulation techniques such as interactions and player perspectives to address common programming misconceptions. Lastly, the third module employs elements in the virtual environment to engage students when learning through the system. To evaluate the system, 60 participants were randomly divided into the control group (N=30) and the experimental group (N=30). Participants in the control group were taught using a video lecture while participants in the experimental group were taught using the developed intervention. Evaluation results gathered quantitatively indicated that the VR intervention was able to significantly increase programming concepts comprehension and address common programming misconceptions. Participants also rated the developed VR intervention to be significantly more engaging than the video lecture.

show abstract

Section: A Issues Faced When Learning Computer Programmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Mitigating Misconceptions Of Programming Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

iProgVR: Design of a Virtual Reality Environment to Improve Introductory Programming Learning

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…• Event. (1) Any occurrence that is meaningful for an observer, or (2) an object that implements the Event interface [26] to hold information about such an occurrence and to represent it while being passed around and processed in the computer. In other contexts, the second meaning is also known as a message.…”

Section: Concepts Of Event-driven Programmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though misconceptions are a broadly researched topic in computing education [e.g., 22], there seems to exist a research gap when it comes to misconceptions regarding EDP. In a recent inventory of programming language misconceptions [2]-which includes misconceptions in JavaScript-no misconceptions related to events are listed. At the time of writing, the accompanying site 3 does not include any of the core concepts related to EDP, either.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first exercise, E1, requested students to explain (1) what concepts are related to eventdriven programming, (2) what do those concepts mean, ( 3) what kinds of relations do they have with each other, and ( 4) what kinds of activities do they perform alone and together. The exercise provided data for all of our three research questions.…”

Section: Concept Comprehension Exercise (E1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Event Listener or an Event Handler?

Lukkarinen

Lehtinen

Haaranen

et al. 2021

Proceedings of the 21st Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When students in programming courses are taught event-driven programming (EDP) for the first time, they face new terminology and concepts that they should internalize. Moreover, they learn a fully new approach for reasoning about program logic and execution order. However, there is a lack of research in students' understanding of these concepts. In this paper, we describe a study, in which we asked web development students to explain their conception of EDP: what are the main concepts involved and how they interact. Moreover, we asked them to explain the execution of a short piece of JavaScript code that focuses on basic usage of events and event listeners. The answers, which we requested as concept maps and text, were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Our results clearly demonstrate shortcomings in the students' learning and illustrate various misunderstandings that they may have regarding EDP. Based on the findings, we give suggestions for improving the teaching of EDP. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Computer science education; • Software and its engineering → Publish-subscribe / eventbased architectures.

show abstract