Examining the Number of Concepts Students Apply in the Exam Solutions of an Introductory Programming Course

Autor/in	Menon, Pratibha
Titel	Examining the Number of Concepts Students Apply in the Exam Solutions of an Introductory Programming Course
Quelle	In: Information Systems Education Journal, 21 (2023) 1, S.53-66 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Introductory Courses; Programming Languages; Computer Science Education; Correlation; Problem Solving; Schemata (Cognition); Number Concepts; Tests; Teaching Methods; Skill Development; Undergraduate Students; State Universities; Concept Formation + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Einführungskurs; Computer science lessons; Informatikunterricht; Korrelation; Problemlösen; Cognition; Schema; Kognition; Number concept; Zahlbegriff; Examination; Prüfung; Examen; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Kompetenzentwicklung; Qualifikationsentwicklung; Staatliche Universität; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung
Abstract	Instruction in an introductory programming course is typically designed to introduce new concepts and to review and integrate the more recent concepts with what was previously learned in the course. Therefore, most exam questions in an introductory programming course require students to write lines of code that contain syntactic elements corresponding to the programming concepts covered during the instruction. This study investigates the number of concepts involved in the exam problems of an introductory Java programming course. In addition, this study compares how the increase in the number of concepts correlates with the ability of students to write error-free lines of code. The instructional method adopted in this study focuses on providing students with a problem-solving schema and a resultant programming plan that integrates many concepts to meet the problem's goal. Results from this study indicate that as the course progresses through the semester, students, on average, apply appropriate problem-solving schemas and programming plans to produce more error-free lines of code, despite an increase in the concept count in the problems. Furthermore, the exam problems later in the course repeat the application of cluster concepts that have appeared in the past exam. This paper illustrates how programming is a cumulative skill and that repeating and building upon the applications of these concept clusters several times through the course increases the likelihood that students will produce more correct lines of code as the semester progresses. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals. Box 488, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. e-mail: publisher@isedj.org; Web site: http://isedj.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01