Identification of Cognitive Processes of Effective and Ineffective Students During Computer Programming

Abstract

Identifying the set of cognitive processes (CPs) a student can go through during computer programming is an interesting research problem. It can provide a better understanding of the human aspects in computer programming process and can also contribute to the computer programming education in general. The study identified the presence of a set of 42 CPs in computer programming (C language). The study used Verbal Protocol Analysis (VPA) in identifying these CPs. It is a qualitative study on the Verbal Protocols (VPs) of 19 students. Some of the CPs have been inferred by referring to the literature and some have been additionally identified by this study. The additional CPs found are confusion, hypothesis, interrogation, iteration, monitoring, recollection, recurrence, and translation. It is observed that programming involves the interplay of lower and higher CPs and needs various cognitive skills, which increase the processing load on the brain and make the programming process difficult and complex to learn and practice. The same set of CPs was found in both the effective and ineffective subjects. The research results can provide deeper knowledge to teachers on cognitive aspects of programming and the cognitive behavior of students during the programming process.

Teaching Introductory Programming

“…This paper has argued for the importance of choices and practices informed by reliable analysis of experimental data. Richer insight and deeper understanding could, though, be gained if objective measurements were inspected in light of findings from analysis of qualitative data, such as video recordings, interviews and verbal protocols [Renumol et al 2010].…”

Evaluation of learning environments for object-oriented programming: measuring cognitive load with a novel measurement technique

“…The second category explores the tools supporting cognitive processes and it includes the methods for mental effort measurement (Paas, van Merrienboer, & Adam, 1994). The third relates computer programming with different cognitive processes, and focuses on the psychology of programming and its implications (Renumol, Janakiram, & Jayaprakash, 2010). When it comes to IDEs, there are models or frameworks proposed for evaluating programming environments (Green & Petre, 1996).…”

CANOE e Fluxo: Determinantes na adoção de curso de programação online gamificado

“…Variados autores têm estudado esta problemática e.g. (Bouvier et al, 2016;Piteira & Costa, 2012;Renumol, Janakiram, & Jayaprakash, 2010;Salleh, Shukur, & Judi, 2013) e identificaram nos seus trabalhos alguns aspetos que podem contribuir para a dificuldade e a consequente retenção. Por exemplo, (Lahtinen, Ala-Mutka, & Järvinen, 2005;Schulte & Bennedsen, 2006) referem aspetos como a utilização de métodos tradicionais de ensino baseados em aulas expositivas sobre as sintaxes das linguagens, que não permitem envolver os alunos em atividades de programação com sentido, contribuindo de forma negativa para a motivação dos alunos.…”