Impact of a New Teaching and Learning Approach in an Introductory Programming Course

Malik, Sohail Iqbal; Coldwell-Neilson, Jo

doi:10.1177/0735633116685852

Cited by 47 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The fourth part (Result) deals with the program inputs, the process used to solve a problem statement, expected outputs and examples of common syntax and semantic errors. The fifth part (Improvement) provides more practice with different programming language constructs (Malik & Coldwell-Neilson, 2017 Step 1: Approach -Problem-solving strategies Pseudo-code 1. Start 2.…”

Section: Introductory Programming Course Materials Based On the Adri mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Traditional and ADRI Based Teaching Approaches in an Introductory Programming Course

Malik

Coldwell-Neilson

2017

JITE:Research

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Aim/PurposeThis study introduced a new teaching and learning approach based on an ADRI (Approach, Deployment, Result, Improvement) model in an introductory programming (IP) course. The effectiveness of the new teaching and learning process was determined by collecting feedback from the IP instructors and by analyzing the final exam grades of the course. Background Learning to program is considered a difficult and challenging task for a considerable number of novice programmers. As a result, high failure and dropout rates are often reported in IP courses. Different studies have been conducted to investigate the issue. One of the reasons for this challenge is the multiple skills that students have to master in order to be able to build programs. These skills include programming knowledge and problem-solving strategies and being able to pay equal attention to these required skills in the IP course. Methodology A focus group was conducted to obtain feedback from the IP instructors about the ADRI approach. The performance of the students who had completed the IP course before ADRI was compared with those who used the ADRI approach by undertaking a comparative analysis of their final exam grades. ContributionThe study demonstrates that the new teaching and learning approach based on the ADRI model encourages students to pay equal attention to programming knowledge and problem-solving strategies, discouraging programming shortcuts and reducing high attrition rates (failure and dropout) in the IP course. FindingsThe results of the focus group show that the instructors preferred the ADRI approach compared to the traditional approach. The final exam grades show that the students performed better in semesters which offered the ADRI approach as compared to those semesters without this approach. Comparison of Traditional and ADRI Based Teaching Approaches 268Future Research Future research will explore the ADRI approach in other fields of computer science studies, such as database and data structure, to determine if its impact has a wider application than just teaching introductory programming.

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Section: Introductory Programming Course Materials Based On the Adri mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Traditional and ADRI Based Teaching Approaches in an Introductory Programming Course

Malik

Coldwell-Neilson

2017

JITE:Research

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“…A mixture of learning styles is necessary at the same time in the novice program learning. However, the novice programmers are typically surface learners, who concentrate on the programming language knowledge (Malik & Coldwell-Neilson, 2017) and lack of programming knowledge. Roles are programming knowledge that the teacher can explicitly teach the novice (Kohn, 2017;Sajaniemi & Kuittinen, 2005).…”

Section: Education Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is a widely held view that learning computer programming is difficult and problematic for many novice programmers (Corney, Lister, & Teague, 2011;Holland, Griffiths, & Woodman, 1997;Malik & Coldwell-Neilson, 2017), and on average, one third of students fail introductory programming course worldwide (Ahadi, 2016). At the Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, approximately 26.4% of computer science students failed in the advanced programming subject in the first semester from 2007 to 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Effectiveness Roles of Variables in the Novice Programmers Learning

Shi

Cui

Ping

et al. 2017

Journal of Educational Computing Research

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This research applies the roles of variables to the novice programmers in the C language programming. The results are evaluated using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy. The participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The students from the control group learned programming in the traditional case-based teaching method. The students in the experimental group learned programming by applying the role-based approach to the case-based teaching method. For the purposes of determining the effects of the role-based teaching, the SOLO taxonomy was used to evaluate the results of the participants' final paper-pencil test. The SOLO level of the code reading and code writing was graded according to the SOLO categories for program comprehension and construction. Data analyses show that (a) there was a higher level of performance and cognitive ability in the experimental group, (b) there were some positive and significant correlations between student's final examination scores and their SOLO level of the code reading and code writing, and (c) the SOLO level of the code writing and code reading was significantly related. These results suggest that the role of variable is effective on improving novice programming.

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“…In this respect, students devoid of these skills can render them lost or frustrated in pursuing such a course [21]. Clearly, learning programming entails students to have strong cognitive skills to help them understand, interpret, and solve cognitively challenging programming assignments or tasks [29]. Therefore, in addition to having a sound understanding of a particular programming language, students need to have strong problem-solving, logical, and analytical skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, the dominant teaching approaches used to teach computer programming mainly involve lectures, discussions, and lab practical sessions [33]. The use of such approaches has been heavily criticized as they are only good at producing passive students, especially in big student classes, because of the minimal interaction between students and teachers [2]. For effective teaching, Uysal [34] implores that computer programming must be used together with the problem-solving strategy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Web-based Learning Programming Portal: Do Instructors Need It to Enhance Novice Students’ Computational Thinking Skill?

Ubaidullah¹,

Hamid²

2019

IJITEE

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Of late, a number of studies have been carried out to infuse the concept of Computational Thinking into programming courses, given that such a concept and programming are closely intertwined. Admittedly, most instructors find teaching programming to be very challenging, especially to novice students. Currently, the dominant teaching approaches used to teach computer programming mainly involve lectures, discussions, and lab practical sessions. Nevertheless, the use of such approaches has been heavily criticized for their ineffectiveness in developing skillful students because of the minimal interaction between students and teachers, especially in large classes. Coupled with the lack of proper teaching aids, the problem is further aggravated, putting the students in a dire situation. Against this backdrop, the authors carried out a study to examine the prevailing problems in the current teaching technique used by programming instructors in teaching programming to novice students, to determine programming instructors’ knowledge about the concept of CT, and to seek a new appropriate teaching aid for teaching programming. A qualitative research method was used involving a semi-structured interview, in which 10 instructors from ten pre-university centers in Malaysia were recruited as the interviewees. The research findings showed that existing teaching approaches used were not effective as students had to rely on additional time to learn programming. In addition, it was found that a majority of the interviewee were fully acquainted with the concept of CT. Moreover, the interviewees professed a strong need for a portal which could be used anywhere, anytime to help novice students to learn programming and enhance their CT skill. Together, these two important findings underscore the imperative to introduce a new teaching approach, preferably aided by a novel application, which can be used by novice students to enhance their programming and CT skills. In this paper, the authors propose an instructional design model for the development of a learning application to help such students.

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Impact of a New Teaching and Learning Approach in an Introductory Programming Course

Cited by 47 publications

References 25 publications

Comparison of Traditional and ADRI Based Teaching Approaches in an Introductory Programming Course

Comparison of Traditional and ADRI Based Teaching Approaches in an Introductory Programming Course

Evaluating the Effectiveness Roles of Variables in the Novice Programmers Learning

A Web-based Learning Programming Portal: Do Instructors Need It to Enhance Novice Students’ Computational Thinking Skill?

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