It is well established that both learning and teaching programming are difficult tasks. Difficulties often occur due to weak mental models and common misconceptions. This study proposes a method of teaching programming that both encourages high-fidelity mental models and attempts to minimise misconceptions in novice programmers, through the use of metaphors and manipulatives. The elements in ActionWorld with which the students interact are realizations of metaphors. By simple example, a variable has a metaphorical representation as a labelled box that can hold a value. The dissertation develops a set of metaphors which have several core requirements: metaphors should avoid causing misconceptions, they need to be high-fidelity so as to avoid failing when used with a new concept, students must be able to relate to them, and finally, they should be usable across multiple educational media. The learning style that ActionWorld supports is one which requires active participation from the student - the system acts as a foundation upon which students are encouraged to build their mental models. This teaching style is achieved by placing the student in the role of code interpreter, the code they need to interpret will not advance until they have demonstrated its meaning via use of the aforementioned metaphors. ActionWorld was developed using an iterative developmental process that consistently improved upon various aspects of the project through a continual evaluation-enhancement cycle. The primary outputs of this project include a unified set of high-fidelity metaphors, a virtual-machine API for use in similar future projects, and two metaphor-testing games. All of the aforementioned deliverables were tested using multiple quality-evaluation criteria, the results of which were consistently positive. ActionWorld and its constituent components contribute to the wide assortment of methods one might use to teach novice programmers.

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This study explored how software development teams form and interact in a computer science college course setting and what an instructor can do to enhance effective teamwork. The experiences of computer science college courses’ teams are compared and contrasted to the theory of Bruce Tuckman’s stages of small group development model, which he characterized as forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Participants repeatedly self-assessed their enthusiasm and skill levels over time on a questionnaire by agreeing or disagreeing to statements utilizing a five-point Likert scale. The data indicated that Tuckman’s model likely applies to software development teams in a computer science college course setting, although this could not be confirmed quantitatively. Indicators for which instructors or students can watch to identify a team that is struggling are provided along with some possible personality traits that may lead to a team’s success. / Background research and related work -- Tuckman's stages of small group development -- Definition of the research area -- Research and data analysis methods -- Data collection and analysis -- Conclusions and future directions. / Department of Computer Science

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate two instructional presentations of flowcharting and computer programming to prospective elementary school teachers. In general, the two instructional approaches differed in the amount of pedagogical subject matter which was integrated into the computer programming content. The control treatment contained no pedagogical content. The subjects (n-38) of the study were students enrolled in a regular CUPM-type course for prospective elementary school teachers. The study was designed to test six hypotheses stated in the null form. In addition, an analysis of the subjects' critiques of a videotaped sixth grade lesson was made. The results of the study suggest that pedagogical subject matter and BASIC computer programming, integrated in a course for prospective elementary school teachers, can cause significant improvements in retention of, and attitudes toward, computer programming. Furthermore, the quality of lesson plans can be enhanced by this integration--Abstract. / Typescript. / "June, 1975." / "Submitted to the Area of Instructional Design and Personnel Development, Program of Mathematics Education, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." / Advisor: Eugene D. Nichols, Professor Directing Dissertation. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 237-240).

by Au Sai Kit. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Purpose of the research --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Significance of the research --- p.4 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Literature related to cognitive skills in programming --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- Literature related to programming in BASIC --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- Literature related to organization aids --- p.13 / Chapter 2.4 --- Literature related to methodology --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1 --- Theoretical framework --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2 --- Hypotheses --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3 --- Method --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Procedure --- p.34 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Subjects --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Instruments --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Design --- p.39 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Analysis --- p.44 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1 --- Reliability of the instruments --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2 --- Results and discussion --- p.49 / Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.71 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of findings --- p.71 / Chapter 5.2 --- Conclusions --- p.73 / Chapter 5.3 --- Limitations --- p.75 / Chapter 5.4 --- Recommendations --- p.77 / Bibliography --- p.79

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate critical thinking development in an introductory computer programming course in which problem-solving was a key component of the course, compared with another college level computing course in which problem-solving is not a key component. There were two hypotheses in this study. The first was that students would show a greater increase in critical thinking skills after they participate in CINS 113 than CINS 101. The second hypothesis was that students’ critical thinking skills at the beginning of CINS 113 would predict the final grade in the course. Prior to conducting the study, approval was received from both institutions’ review boards and all guidelines were followed. A control group was recruited from students enrolled in a course that was determined to not have problem-solving as a key component of the course and an experimental group was recruited from students enrolled in an introductory computer programming course. Both courses were from a Midwestern community college. Program chairs from various regions throughout the state volunteered their faculty and students to participate in the study. Students were administered the Cornell Critical Thinking Test on the first day of the semester and again at the end of the semester. At the end of the semester, faculty submitted final semester grades for all students participating in the program. A comparison of the pretest was made against the posttest using a repeating ANOVA test to see if there was a significant change between the two scores and if there was a difference in the change in scores between the two groups. In addition, the pretest was analyzed against the final grade for the course to determine if a relationship existed between the critical thinking score at the beginning of the course and the student’s success in the course. A correlational analysis, as well as regression analysis, was conducted. There were a total of 213 students who completed the study. The results of the study supported both hypotheses. / Department of Educational Studies

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

As new introductory block-based coding applications for young students to learn basic computer science concepts, such as, loops and conditionals, continue to increase in popularity, it is necessary to consider the best method of teaching students these skills. Many of these products continue to exhibit programmatic misconceptions of these concepts and many students struggle with how to apply what they learn to a text-based format due to the difficulties with learning the syntactic structure not present in block-based programming languages. If the goal of teaching young students how to program is meant to develop a set of skills they may apply when learning more complex programming languages, then discerning how they are introduced to those practices is imperative. However, few studies have examined how the specific modality in which students are taught to program effects how they learn and what skills they develop. More specifically, research has yet to effectively investigate modality in the context of an educational coding game where the modality feature is controlled, and content is consistent throughout game-play. This is mainly due to the lack of available games with this feature designed into the application. This dissertation explores whether programming modality effects how well students can learn and transfer computer science concepts and practices from an educational programming game. I proposed that by being guided from a blocks-based to text-based programming language would instill a deeper understanding of basic computer science concepts and would support learning and improve transfer and performance on new challenging tasks. Two experimental studies facilitated game-play sessions on the developed application for this project. The first study was a 2x2 between subjects design comparing educational module (game versus basic) and programming modality (guided versus free choice). The findings from Study 1 informed the final version design for the module used in the second study where only the game module was used in order to focus the comparison between programming modality. Findings showed that students who coded using the game module performed better on a learning test. Study 2 results showed that students who are transitioned from blocks-based to text-based programming language learn basic computer science concepts with greater success than those with the free choice modality. A comparative study was conducted using quantitative data from learning measures and qualitative video data from the interviews during the challenge task of the second study. This study examined how students at the extreme levels of performance utilized the toggle switch feature during game-play and how the absence of the feature impacted how they completed the challenge task. This analysis showed two different methods of toggle switch usage being implemented by a high and low performing student. The high performing student utilized the resources more often during the challenge tasks in lieu of leveraging the toggle switch and were still able to submit high level code. Results suggest that a free choice student who uses the feature as a tool to check their prewritten code rather than a as short cut for piecing code together as blocks and submitting the text upon the final attempt. This practice leads to a shallower understanding of the basic concepts and make it extremely difficult to expand and apply that knowledge to a more difficult task. This dissertation includes five chapters: an introduction and theoretical framework, a game design framework and implementation description, two experimental investigations, and a quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis. Chapter one provides the conceptual and theoretical framework for the two experimental investigations. Chapter two describes the theory and design structure for the game developed for this dissertation work. Chapter three and four will discuss the effects of programming modality on learning outcomes. Specifically, chapter 3 focuses on implications of programming modality when determining how to implement changes for the design of the game for Study 2. Chapter five discusses a comparative analysis that investigated differing work flow patterns within the free choice condition between high and low performing students. Results from these three chapters illustrate the importance of examining this component of the computer science education process in supplemental games for middle and high school students. Additionally, this work contributes in furthering the investigation of these educational games and discusses implications for design of similar applications.

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Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The skill of programming necessitates knowing programming tools, problem solving and effective techniques of program design and implementation. Most students are incapable of fully understanding and utilising the feature set of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). The feature set of certain IDEs comes with a lot of functionalities and students have to spend a lot of their time studying the features of the IDE without paying much attention to the syntax and semantics of the programming language. The main objective of this study was to examine the perceptions of students on interactive environments for teaching Object-Oriented concepts using the Java programming language in two integrated development environments. This was done by adopting the ISO 9126 model to select generic external system quality characteristics and sub-characteristics that might influence student evaluation of an IDE. The proposed model was applied on NetBeans and JCreator LE 5.0 as IDEs for teaching Java programming using OOP concepts. The study adopted a mixed method research approach using interviews and questionnaires. A single-case study was used for data collection and analysis. The approaches collected data from two groups of students using either NetBeans or JCreator and who were learning OOP concepts. The study further looked at the students’ class tests and exam results in an effort to have an objective overview of how students performed. These groups of students were at two different campuses of the selected University. Each group had already been exposed to the Java syntax. The result from this study was general guidelines to establish an interactive OOP development environment for teaching and learning of Java programming that enhances OOP comprehension. This research study involved human subjects. It was, therefore, a requirement to seek ethics approval. Additionally, the objects involved were students of a selected University and as such a consent letter was sought from the University.