Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

Sheard, J; Simon, B; Carbone, A; Thompson, E; Lister, R; Whalley, JL

Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

Sheard, J Simon, B Carbone, A Thompson, E Lister, R

Whalley, JL

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE, 2008, pp. 209 - 213
Issue Date:: 2008-12-15

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Sheard, J	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Simon, B	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Carbone, A	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Thompson, E	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Lister, R https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-0445	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Whalley, JL	en_US
dc.date.issued	2008-12-15	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE, 2008, pp. 209 - 213	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9781605580784	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10719
dc.description.abstract	This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates. Copyright 2008 ACM.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1145/1384271.1384328	en_US
dc.title	Going SOLO to assess novice programmers	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.for	0899 Other Information and Computing Sciences	en_US
dc.location.activity	Madrid, Spain	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Computer Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - HCTD - Human Centred Technology Design
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates. Copyright 2008 ACM.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10719