The black box inside the glass box: presenting computing concepts to novices

Boulay, Benedict du; O’Shea, Tim; Monk, John

doi:10.1016/s0020-7373(81)80056-9

Cited by 216 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…A program visualization tool is an important component of a learning environment for programming. Such a tool enables the student to build a clear mental model of virtual (notional) machine behavior (du Boulay et al, 1981), as well as understand the semantics of programming language constructs and the behavior of algorithms . There are a number of systems and environments that employ program visualization (see McGlinn, Britt & Woolard, 1989 ; Sanders & Gopal, 1991 for a good review and reference list).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Explanatory visualization in an educational programming environment: Connecting examples with general knowledge

Brusilovsky

1994

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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: Explanatory program visualization is a name for program visualization extended with natural language explanations. Explanatory visualization can seriously increase students' understanding of program behavior . This paper gives the rationale and background for explanatory visualization and introduces our work on using explanatory visualization in educational programming environments . In particular, we present first experimental results on using explanatory visualization and provide a fine-grained description of the implementation of adaptive explanatory visualization in our ITEMIIP-II system. This system employs student model to adapt the visualization to the student knowledge level.

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confidence: 99%

Explanatory visualization in an educational programming environment: Connecting examples with general knowledge

Brusilovsky

1994

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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“…In order to be able to understand what individual constructs of a programming language mean and how programs written in that language work, a student must understand how the notional machine (du Boulay, O'Shea, & Monk, 1981) underlying that language works. Programs cannot be understood as strings of characters only; students must understand, for example, what a variable is and how it is affected by assignments.…”

Section: The Notional Machine Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A more thorough understanding of programming includes, for instance, knowledge of typical uses of variables and control structures (Détienne, 2002), which also relies on a proper understanding of the notional machine. The machine needed for understanding the first programs should be simple, or else learning programming becomes hard (du Boulay et al, 1981).…”

Section: The Notional Machine Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Procedures to Objects: A Research Agenda for the Psychology of Object-Oriented Programming Education

Sajaniemi¹,

Kuittinen²

2008

Human Technology

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“…In the domain of: teaching programming, Mayer [ 151 and du Boulay et al [6] argued for the advantages of explaining the process that takes place within the black box (computers). They believed that a concrete conceptual model, which showed the process of the system at an appropriate level of details, would improve learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual models and cognitive learning styles in teaching recursion

Dale

Bethel

1998

SIGCSE Bull.

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,An experimental-research design was implemented in an attempt to understand how different types of conceptual models and cognitive learning styles influence novice programmers when learning recursion. The results indicate that in teaching recursion to novice programmers: . concrete conceptual models are better than abstract , conceptual models, . novices with abstract learning styles perform ,better than those with concrete learning styles, . abstract learners do not necessarily benefit more from abstract conceptual models, and . concrete learners do not necessarily benefit more from concrete conceptual models.tend to develop an incorrect mental model of recursion.Conceptual models, such as the Russian Dolls model, the process tracing model, and the mathematical induction model, have been used in 'teaching recursion to novice programmers. It is hoped that these models will facilitate the learning of recursion by helping students develop an accurate mental model of recursion. In addition to conceptual models, individual differences such as cognitive learning styles, cognitive abilities, and previous experiences with a similar system play a role in the mental model formation process of learning computer systems [2,9,20]. There is evidence that individual cognitive learning styles are related to programming ability in novice programmers [3,231.

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The black box inside the glass box: presenting computing concepts to novices

Cited by 216 publications

References 16 publications

Explanatory visualization in an educational programming environment: Connecting examples with general knowledge

Explanatory visualization in an educational programming environment: Connecting examples with general knowledge

From Procedures to Objects: A Research Agenda for the Psychology of Object-Oriented Programming Education

Conceptual models and cognitive learning styles in teaching recursion

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