Take a look at the new version of this page: [ beta version ]. Tell us what you think.

ABSTRACT

Recent research has found that many novice programmers often hold non-viable mental models of basic programming concepts which can limit their potential to develop appropriate programming skills. Previous work by the authors suggests that a teaching model that integrates cognitive conflict and program visualisation can help novices formulate appropriate mental models. This paper first outlines a 'concepts roadmap' that provides an ordered approach to learning programming concepts allowing students to build on fundamental base knowledge. It then reports the results of a series of studies investigating the use of the Jeliot visualisation tool as the visualisation component of the proposed learning model when applied to these concepts. The findings include: the ease with which Jeliot can be tailored to visualise a range of concepts using a variety of examples; the Jeliot visualisation of object reference was too complex for CS1 students; further evidence that CS1 students struggle to develop appropriate understanding of a range of key programming concepts; and, further evidence that an integrated cognitive conflict/visualisation strategy can help students develop an appropriate understanding of key programming concepts.

REFERENCES

• 1: Barnes D.J., Fincher S., and Thompson S. 1997. Introductory problem solving in computer science. In G. Daughton, and P. Magee, (eds.) 5th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Computing, Dublin City University, 36--39.
• 2: David J. Barnes , Michael Kolling, Objects First With Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ (3rd Edition), Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2006
• 3: Piraye Bayman , Richard E. Mayer, A diagnosis of beginning programmers' misconceptions of BASIC programming statements, Communications of the ACM, v.26 n.9, p.677-679, Sept. 1983 [doi>10.1145/358172.358408]
• 4: Constructivism in computer science education, Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, v.20 n.1, p.45-73, January 2001
• 5: Ben-Ari, M. 2001. Program visualisation in theory and practice. Informatik/ Informatique, 2, 8--11.
• 6: Ronit Ben-Bassat Levy , Mordechai Ben-Ari , Pekka A. Uronen, The Jeliot 2000 program animation system, Computers & Education, v.40 n.1, p.1-15, January 2003 [doi>10.1016/S0360-1315(02)00076-3]
• 7: Dehnadi, S., and Bornat, R. 2006. The camel has two humps. Middlesex University Working Paper. http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed
• 8: Peter J. Denning , Andrew McGettrick, Recentering computer science, Communications of the ACM, v.48 n.11, November 2005 [doi>10.1145/1096000.1096018]
• 9: Ericsson, K.,&Simon, H. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• 10: Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• 11: Gentner, D. 2002. Mental models, psychology of. In Smelser&Bates (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier Science, 9683--9687.
• 12: Linxiao Ma , John Ferguson , Marc Roper , Murray Wood, Investigating the viability of mental models held by novice programmers, Proceedings of the 38th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, March 07-11, 2007, Covington, Kentucky, USA [doi>10.1145/1227310.1227481]
• 13: Linxiao Ma , John D. Ferguson , Marc Roper , Isla Ross , Murray Wood, Using cognitive conflict and visualisation to improve mental models held by novice programmers, Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, March 12-15, 2008, Portland, OR, USA [doi>10.1145/1352135.1352253]
• 14: Ma L., Ferguson J.D., Roper M., Ross I., and Wood M. 2008. Investigating the use of Jeliot in a Cognitive Conflict/Visualisation Strategy for Teaching Programming Concepts, Technical Report, University of Strathclyde, UK. http://mentalmodels.cis.strath.ac.uk/CC_Jeliot.pdf
• 15: Michael McCracken , Vicki Almstrum , Danny Diaz , Mark Guzdial , Dianne Hagan , Yifat Ben-David Kolikant , Cary Laxer , Lynda Thomas , Ian Utting , Tadeusz Wilusz, A multi-national, multi-institutional study of assessment of programming skills of first-year CS students, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.33 n.4, December 2001 [doi>10.1145/572139.572181]
• 16: Merrill, M. D. (2002). A pebble-in-the-pond model for instructional design. Performance Improvement, 41(7), 39--44.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.0 General

General Terms:
Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
CS1, Jeliot, mental models, novice, programming