Some Difficulties of Learning to Program

Boulay, Benedict du

doi:10.2190/3lfx-9rrf-67t8-uvk9

Cited by 487 publications

(257 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Children find it difficult to understand the syntax and semantics of programming (Spohrer & Soloway, 1986;Perkins, 1988). They also find it challenging to effectively control the flow of a program using loops and conditionals (du Boulay, 1989). Researchers have also found that alleviating syntax problems helps students focus on the semantic ones (Hohmann, 1992;Soloway, 1993;Anderson, 1989;Mannila, Peltomaki & Salakoski, 2006).…”

Section: Agent-based Visual Programming and Tangible Computation For Chmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated STEM in Elementary Grades Using Distributed Agent-based Computation

Sengupta

Krishnan

Wright

2014

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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Abstract:We investigate how the integration of visual agent-based programming and computationally augmented physical structures can support curricular integration across STEM domains for elementary grade students. We introduce ViMAP-Tangible, a socio-technically distributed computational learning environment, which integrates ultrasonic sensors with the ViMAP visual programming language using a distributed computation infrastructure. In this paper, we report a study in which 3 rd and 4 th grade students used ViMAP-Tangible to engage in collaborative design-based activities in order to invent "drawing machines" for generating geometric shapes. The curricular activities integrate engineering practices such as user-centered design, mathematical reasoning about multiplication, rates and fractions, and physical science concepts central to learning Newtonian mechanics. We identify the key affordances of the learning environment and our pedagogical approach in terms of the relationship between the structural elements of students' physical constructions and computational models, and their learning outcomes, both in terms of computational thinking, and the domain-specific, mathematical and scientific knowledge that they began developing.

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Section: Agent-based Visual Programming and Tangible Computation For Chmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated STEM in Elementary Grades Using Distributed Agent-based Computation

Sengupta

Krishnan

Wright

2014

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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“…In the glass box approach, students do have such an idea because the instruction includes a concrete but simplified computer model. This model makes it possible to emphasize a "notional machine" on both a general level, such as in teaching the relationship between the terminal and the computer and a specific level, such as in teaching assignment statements (DuBoulay, 1986). Mayer (1975) either gave students in an introductory BASIC course a concrete computer model or he did not.…”

Section: Concrete Computer Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school

Merriënboer

Krammer

1987

Instr Sci

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Abstract. This article offers an examination of instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school. We distinguish the Expert, Spiral and Reading approach as groups of instructional strategies that mainly differ in their general design plan to control students' processing load. In order, they emphasize topdown program design, incremental learning, and program modification and amplification. In contrast, tactics are specific design plans that prescribe methods to reach desired learning outcomes under given circumstances. Based on ACT* (Anderson, 1983) and relevant research, we distinguish between declarative and procedural instruction and present six tactics which can be used both to design courses and to evaluate strategies. Three tactics for declarative instruction involve concrete computer models, programming plans and design diagrams; three tactics for procedural instruction involve worked-out examples, practice of basic cognitive skills and task variation. In our evaluation of groups of instructional strategies, the Reading approach has been found to be superior to the Expert and Spiral approaches.

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“…Learning and teaching computer programming is widely recognised as being a challenging undertaking within Higher Education (DuBoulay, 1989;Robins, Rountree, J. & Rountree, N. 2003;Winslow 1996) and does not appear to have become any easier over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating shareable feedback tags for programming assignments

Cummins

Burd

Hatch

2011

Computer Science Education

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Investigating sharable feedback tags for programming assignmentsThis paper presents an investigation into the usage of sharable feedback tags as a way of delivering feedback to three different cohorts of programming students. A series of research questions are investigated which include investigating any perceived benefit from students using feedback tags and investigating how students interact with their feedback. Results indicate that students with both the lower and higher marks in a cohort are more likely to opt to share their feedback and programming work than students with mid-ranged marks. A variety of reasons for and against sharing given by students are discussed. Six categories of student behaviour exhibited during interaction with their feedback have been identified in this paper. This paper has shown that feedback tags can be used successfully as a form of sharable feedback and that a number of future research possibilities exist that can extend this topic.

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Some Difficulties of Learning to Program

Cited by 487 publications

References 7 publications

Integrated STEM in Elementary Grades Using Distributed Agent-based Computation

Integrated STEM in Elementary Grades Using Distributed Agent-based Computation

Instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school

Investigating shareable feedback tags for programming assignments

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