Relationships between reading, tracing and writing skills in introductory programming

Lopez, M; Whalley, J; Robbins, P; Lister, R

Relationships between reading, tracing and writing skills in introductory programming

Lopez, M Whalley, J Robbins, P Lister, R

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: ICER'08 - Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on International Computing Education Research, 2008, pp. 101 - 111
Issue Date:: 2008-12-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Lopez, M	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Whalley, J	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Robbins, P	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Lister, R https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-0445	en_US
dc.date.issued	2008-12-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	ICER'08 - Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on International Computing Education Research, 2008, pp. 101 - 111	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9781605582160	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10806
dc.description.abstract	This study analyzed student responses to an examination, after the students had completed one semester of instruction in programming. The performance of students on code tracing tasks correlated with their performance on code writing tasks. A correlation was also found between performance on "explain in plain English" tasks and code writing. A stepwise regression, with performance on code writing as the dependent variable, was used to construct a path diagram. The diagram suggests the possibility of a hierarchy of programming related tasks. Knowledge of programming constructs forms the bottom of the hierarchy, with "explain in English", Parson's puzzles, and the tracing of iterative code forming one or more intermediate levels in the hierarchy. Copyright 2008 ACM.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	ICER'08 - Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on International Computing Education Research	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1145/1404520.1404531	en_US
dc.title	Relationships between reading, tracing and writing skills in introductory programming	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.for	089999 Information and Computing Sciences not elsewhere classified	en_US
dc.location.activity	Sydney, Australia	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 study analyzed student responses to an examination, after the students had completed one semester of instruction in programming. The performance of students on code tracing tasks correlated with their performance on code writing tasks. A correlation was also found between performance on "explain in plain English" tasks and code writing. A stepwise regression, with performance on code writing as the dependent variable, was used to construct a path diagram. The diagram suggests the possibility of a hierarchy of programming related tasks. Knowledge of programming constructs forms the bottom of the hierarchy, with "explain in English", Parson's puzzles, and the tracing of iterative code forming one or more intermediate levels in the hierarchy. Copyright 2008 ACM.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10806