Student understanding of object-oriented programming as expressed in concept maps

Abstract

Sanders, K., Boustedt, J., Eckerdal, A., McCartney, R., Mostr?m, J., Thomas, L., and Zander, C. 2008. Student understanding of object-oriented programming as expressed in concept maps. In Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (Portland, OR, USA, March 12 - 15, 2008). SIGCSE '08. ACM, New York, NY, 332-336.In this paper, we present the results of an experiment in which we sought to elicit students' understanding of object-oriented (OO) concepts using concept maps. Our analysis confirmed earlier research indicating that students do not have a firm grasp on the distinction between 'class' and 'instance.' Unlike earlier research, we found that our students generally connect classes with both data and behavior. Students rarely included any mention of the hardware/software context of programs, their users, or their real-world domains. Students do mention inheritance, but not encapsulation or abstraction. And the picture they draw of OO is a static one: we found nothing that could be construed as referring to interaction among objects in a program. We then discuss the implications for teaching introductory OO programming.Non peer reviewe

Detecting and understanding students' misconceptions related to algorithms and data structures

“…[5,9,13,14,16], is related to object-orientation which is not the focus of our study. In contrast, only few observations have been made about misconceptions related to algorithms.…”

Concept Maps for Learning in a Flipped Classroom

“…Concept maps can be used to present information in a non-sequential way or in several different ways, depending on the need [8]. Sanders et al [9] used concept maps to analyze their students' understanding of objectoriented (OO) concepts. Morsi et al [12] address the use of concept maps for both conceptual representation and validation process of the curriculum.…”

What students (should) know about object oriented programming

“…[28], [1], [29]. Some years ago, Sanders et al compared the knowledge of students in several nations using concept mapping techniques [25]. Goldsmith and Davenport developed a graph-theoretical measure for the similarity of graphs based on neighborhood structures [7].…”