The Neglected Middle Novice Programmer: Reading and Writing without Abstracting

Lister, RF

The Neglected Middle Novice Programmer: Reading and Writing without Abstracting

Lister, RF

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Publisher:: National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications
Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: 20th Annual Conference of the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications, 2007, pp. 133 - 140
Issue Date:: 2007-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Lister, RF https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-0445	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Mann, S	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Bridgeman, N	en_US
dc.date	2007-07-11	en_US
dc.date.issued	2007-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	20th Annual Conference of the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications, 2007, pp. 133 - 140	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1176-8053	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/7445
dc.description.abstract	Many teachers of novice programmers have lamented that students either seem to have a natural gift for programming, or have no gift for it at all. In this paper, we discuss a third group of students, the middle novice programmer. At the completion of their first semester of programming, these students can manifest a strong concrete grasp of the semantics of basic programming language constructs, by hand executing code, but they cannot reason about code at a higher goal/plan level. The research evidence presented in this paper for the existence of these middle novice programmers is from the analysis of twelve multiple choice questions, which students attempted as part of an end-of-first-semester exam.	en_US
dc.publisher	National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	20th Annual Conference of the National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	National Advisory Committee on Computing Qualifications	en_US
dc.title	The Neglected Middle Novice Programmer: Reading and Writing without Abstracting	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.location	New Zealand	en_US
utslib.location.activity	Nelson, New Zealand	en_US
utslib.for	0899 Other Information and Computing Sciences	en_US
dc.location.activity	Nelson, New Zealand	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.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	New Zealand	en_US
pubs.start-date	2007-07-11	en_US

Abstract:

Many teachers of novice programmers have lamented that students either seem to have a natural gift for programming, or have no gift for it at all. In this paper, we discuss a third group of students, the middle novice programmer. At the completion of their first semester of programming, these students can manifest a strong concrete grasp of the semantics of basic programming language constructs, by hand executing code, but they cannot reason about code at a higher goal/plan level. The research evidence presented in this paper for the existence of these middle novice programmers is from the analysis of twelve multiple choice questions, which students attempted as part of an end-of-first-semester exam.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/7445