Further evidence of a relationship between explaining, tracing and writing skills in introductory programming

Abstract

This paper reports on a replication of earlier studies into a possible hierarchy of programming skills. In this study, the students from whom data was collected were at a university that had not provided data for earlier studies. Also, the students were taught the programming language "Python", which had not been used in earlier studies. Thus this study serves as a test of whether the findings in the earlier studies were specific to certain institutions, student cohorts, and programming languages. Also, we used a non-parametric approach to the analysis, rather than the linear approach of earlier studies. Our results are consistent with the earlier studies. We found that students who cannot trace code usually cannot explain code, and also that students who tend to perform reasonably well at code writing tasks have also usually acquired the ability to both trace code and explain code.

A review of games designed to improve introductory computer programming competencies

“…There is a stronger relationship between code comprehension and debugging than between code writing and debugging [12,15,16]. The students are more confident in writing when they have better knowledge and debugging skills [17].…”

“…Some studies showed that the students mastered the debugging skills developed better code writing skills [12,15,16]. The character metaphor as a variable state helps to improve together the debugging and writing skills.…”

Relationships

“…At the highest level, evaluation, were placed those strategies indicating analysis for deeper meaning. This foreshadows the work of Lister, Fidge, and Teague [28], which identified the explaining of code's problem-solving purpose as different from understanding at a lineby-line level.…”

“…This work was built upon in a further study in which Lister, Fidge, and Teague [28] found that effective programmers had developed good tracing skills prior to good writing skills, and that good students can explain the purpose of code without stating what it does line by line. This led them to conclude that writing good effective code requires both tracing and explaining skills [28].…”

“…Lister has been involved in trying to explain the relationship between reading, tracing, explaining, and writing code for many years, most recently in the research of Lopez, et al [30], and Lister, Fidge, and Teague [28]. When investigating a multilevel hierarchy of programming, based on an analysis of exam papers, strong evidence revealed the association between tracing and writing, especially within the concepts of loops [30].…”