An introduction to program comprehension for computer science educators

Schulte, Carsten; Clear, Tony; Taherkhani, Ahmad; Busjahn, Teresa; Paterson, James H.

doi:10.1145/1971681.1971687

Cited by 71 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Shulte et al's survey article [13] on PC considers a number of PC models, setting an analysis of each against Schulte's Block Model [12], itself an educational model of PC. The Block Model considers understanding at four levels of detail within a program, from individual language elements, through blocks of code consisting of adjacent statements and then multiple related blocks, up to the whole program.…”

Section: Related Work and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The general lack of focus on teaching program comprehension reported in the literature ("a neglected topic" [13]), should be a concern for CS educators, yet it is perhaps understandable given that nearly all the findings in this area come from observations of experienced programmers by experienced programmers. Maybe we are simply missing some key underpinnings to program comprehension because they are so automatic to us.…”

Section: Emphasising the Use Of Formal Languages In Cs Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cutts

Connor

Michaelson

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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This paper argues that the "institutionalised understanding" of pseudo-code as a blend of formal and natural languages makes it an unsuitable choice for national assessment where the intention is to test program comprehension skills. It permits question-setters to inadvertently introduce a level of ambiguity and consequent confusion. This is not in keeping with either good assessment practice or an argument developed in the paper that CS education should be clearly fostering the skills needed for understanding formal, as distinct from natural, languages. The argument is backed up by an analysis of 49 questions drawn from the national school CS examinations of a single country, spanning a period of six years and two phases -the first in which no formal pseudocode was defined, the second in which a formal reference language, referred to as a "formally-defined pseudo-code", was provided for teachers and exam setters. The analysis demonstrates that in both phases, incorrect, confusing or ambiguous code was presented in questions. The paper concludes by recommending that the term reference language should be used in place of pseudo-code, and an appropriate formally-defined language specified, in national exam settings where a common language of assessment is required,. This change of terms emphasises the characteristics required of a language to be used for assessment of program comprehension. The reference language used in the study is outlined. It was designed by the authors for human readability and also to make absolutely explicit the demarcation between formal and informal language, in such a way that automated checking can be carried out on programs written in the language. Formal specifications and a checker for the language are available.

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Section: Related Work and Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emphasising the Use Of Formal Languages In Cs Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Code or (not code)

Cutts

Connor

Michaelson

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education

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“…Diversos estudos têm sido conduzidos com os mais variados objetivos: estudar as dificuldades na aprendizagem, (ex: [Milne et al 2002], [Lahtinen et al 2005], [Robins e al. 2003], [Winslow 1996] e [Schulte et al 2010]; identificar modelos mentais dos alunos iniciantes, [Ma 2007]; propor soluções baseadas em ferramentas Piteira e Costa / Aprendizagem da Programação: Problemas e Soluções 14ª Conferência da Associação Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informação (CAPSI 2014) 48 educacionais, [Eckerdal et al 2005], [Lister et al 2004]; identificar o impacto da linguagem de programação que é ensinada, [Winslow 1996], entre outros.…”

Section: Problemas Na Aprendizagem Da Programaçãounclassified

Learning Programming: Problems and Solutions

Piteira

Costa

2014

Atas Da 14ª Conferência Da Associação Portuguesa De Sistemas De Informação

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ResumoA aprendizagem da programação por alunos iniciantes é uma tarefa difícil devido à natureza da matéria, sendo muitas vezes uma causa de desmotivação que leva à desistência dos cursos de programação. Neste contexto este artigo identifica os principais problemas e soluções propostas, referidas na literatura. É igualmente apresentado um estudo empírico para identificação das dificuldades percecionadas por alunos e professores relativamente a conceitos de programação, contextos de aprendizagem, situações de aprendizagem e materiais/recursos. Com base na revisão da literatura e estudo empírico conduzido é proposta uma solução de aprendizagem suportada por um ambiente tangível. Através desta experiência pretende-se identificar em que medida a solução proposta influencia a perceção das dificuldades na aprendizagem da programação. Palavras INTRODUÇÃOProgramar é uma das competências especialmente requeridas nos nossos dias. É também uma das principais áreas no ensino da informática, contribuindo para a aquisição das competências requeridas, quer ao nível prático quer conceptual. Contudo, a literatura reporta que os alunos, que iniciam a aprendizagem nessa área enfrentam dificuldades de natureza diversa. Essas

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“…A novel framework has been designed that encompasses known educational taxonomies, models and software metrics (for example [2], [5] and [1]). This framework will subsequently be used to design a set of tasks to trigger situations that require some form of knowledge adaptation or acquisition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This framework will subsequently be used to design a set of tasks to trigger situations that require some form of knowledge adaptation or acquisition. Students will be observed attempting to solve these programing tasks as well as being interviewed using a think-out-loud protocol We propose to map their strategies using the Block model and relevant theories regarding strategies used by computer programmers [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%