Managing Cognitive Load in Introductory Programming Courses: A Cognitive Aware Scaffolding Tool

Abstract

Research on techniques for teaching computer programming to novice learners has suggested that introducing programming concepts and theories is extremely difficult because the learners have to assimilate syntactical methods of the programming language as well as their interface to the programming world. Computer programming for the novice requires the understanding of a variety of different areas such as logic and mathematical concepts, syntax, the language interface, algorithms, flowcharts, and pseudocode associated with programming theory, which can overwhelm the learner and increase levels of stress and frustration (cognitive load). The central theme of this research was to examine the effects of scaffolding tools on cognitive load levels as participants completed laboratory assignments within a Visual Basic for Applications programming course, and to compare final course grades in Phase I and Phase II of the research. Participants were asked to evaluate their cognitive load as they completed assignments throughout the course. Course grades were also collected because all students in Phase I of the research eventually received the scaffolding tool prior to the final exam. Phase I of this study showed that within the major groups of online and face-to-face learners, and the subgroups of treatment and control, some benefit (as determined by the statistical means) was obtained by the use of the scaffolding tool to reduce cognitive load and improve laboratory scores. In the second phase of this research the students did not receive the scaffolding tool. A comparison of Phase I and Phase II indicates that the Group with the Scaffolding Tool (Phase I) experienced lower levels of cognitive load and attained higher laboratory and course scores than did the Group without the Scaffolding Tool.

Exploring perceived cognitive load in learning programming via Scratch

“…Researchers advocated that it is difficult to reduce cognitive load during the learning process of programming (Mead et al 2006;Renkl and Atkinson 2003;Stachel et al 2013). Mason, Cooper, and Wilks (2015) documented that some of the programming environments may be complex and cause an adverse impact on learners' focus of attention and overloading cognitive resources for learning.…”

The Investigation of Novice Programmers’ Debugging Behaviors to Inform Intelligent E-Learning Environments: A Case Study

“…Sweller (2008) claimed that instructional strategies and activities, which include scaffolding systems, have a big influence on cognitive load. Directly linked to the current study, Stachel et al (2013) provided scaffolding tools to the programming learners in their experimental research, and results showed that the tool decreased their cognitive load and made a modest contribution to course scores. Similarly, Salleh et al (2018) generated a scaffolding tool based on cognitive load theory and decreased cognitive load of novice learners.…”

“…The reason for these meaningful negative relationships (in favor of low difficulty level questions) may be due to that programming requires keeping various information at different levels in the working memory. This information is stated as syntactic details, mental models for problem-solving and specifying the solution for problems (Balzert, 2004;Rist, 1995;Stachel et al, 2013). As the level of difficulty increases, the load on the working memory also increases, considering the requirements of programming.…”

“…Apart from examining programming in terms of cognitive processes, some studies have made suggestions to make these processes more productive, and some have examined the effectiveness of instructional tools that have been developed based on various instructional strategies. While a number of studies emphasized the effectiveness of the developed instructional tools (Salleh, Shukur, & Judi, 2018;Stachel et al, 2013), others stated that the tool they developed was not effective (Denny, Luxton-Reilly, & Carpenter, 2014).…”

I Scratch and Sense But Can I Program?

“…No single teaching approach seems to benefit all students. A proportion of students can readily comprehend a concept, such as repetition, as written in a textual language, for example Java, but a significant group will always be frustrated and require other forms of illustration of the concept which present less or differing cognitive load (Stachel et al, 2013). This paper reports an investigation into the efficacy of a blocks based language for learning programming.…”