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Using cognitive conflict and visualisation to improve mental models held by novice programmers

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Murray WoodAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 40, Issue 1

Pages 342 - 346

https://doi.org/10.1145/1352322.1352253

Published: 12 March 2008 Publication History

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Abstract

Recent research has found that many novice programmers often hold non-viable mental models of basic programming concepts such as assignment and object reference, which can limit their potential to develop programming skills. This paper proposes a constructivist-based teaching model that integrates cognitive conflict and program visualisation with the aim of supporting novice programmers in the formulation of appropriate mental models. The results of an initial empirical study produced three findings of note. Firstly, a teaching model based on either visualisation alone or cognitive conflict integrated with visualisation can help students develop viable models of value assignment. Secondly, there was evidence to suggest that cognitive conflict integrated with visualisation outperformed visualisation alone in helping students develop viable models of the more challenging concept of object reference assignment. And thirdly, there was evidence of an improvement in students' understanding of value and object reference assignment using the teaching model based on visualisation and cognitive conflict.

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Pham MNguyen ASchreib RMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)MemStep: An Interactive Tool for Constructing and Visualizing the Run-Time Memory Layout of Java ProgramsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653532(541-547)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653532
van der Linde SGoede R(2022)The Art of Teaching Professional Practice: An Action Research Methodology Inspired by Ulrich’s Systems ConceptsSystemic Practice and Action Research10.1007/s11213-022-09608-w36:2(203-237)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-022-09608-w
van der Linde SGoede R(2020)From Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, to Action Research in Improving the Programming Skills of StudentsSystemic Practice and Action Research10.1007/s11213-020-09543-8Online publication date: 8-Sep-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-020-09543-8
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Index Terms

Using cognitive conflict and visualisation to improve mental models held by novice programmers
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 40, Issue 1

SIGCSE 08

March 2008

549 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1352322

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2008
606 pages
ISBN:9781595937995
DOI:10.1145/1352135
General Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
Haverford College
,
Susan Rodger
Duke University
,
Program Chairs:
Sue Fitzgerald
Metropolitan State University
,
Mark Guzdial
Georgia Institute of Technology

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 12 March 2008

Published in SIGCSE Volume 40, Issue 1

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Cited By

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Pham MNguyen ASchreib RMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)MemStep: An Interactive Tool for Constructing and Visualizing the Run-Time Memory Layout of Java ProgramsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653532(541-547)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653532
van der Linde SGoede R(2022)The Art of Teaching Professional Practice: An Action Research Methodology Inspired by Ulrich’s Systems ConceptsSystemic Practice and Action Research10.1007/s11213-022-09608-w36:2(203-237)Online publication date: 20-Aug-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-022-09608-w
van der Linde SGoede R(2020)From Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, to Action Research in Improving the Programming Skills of StudentsSystemic Practice and Action Research10.1007/s11213-020-09543-8Online publication date: 8-Sep-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-020-09543-8
Sorva JMalmi LPears A(2008)The same but different students' understandings of primitive and object variablesProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/1595356.1595360(5-15)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1595356.1595360
Huang RFerdowsi KSelvaraj ASoosai Raj ALerner SMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Investigating the Impact of Using a Live Programming Environment in a CS1 CourseProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499305(495-501)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3478431.3499305
Dickson PDragon TSchulte CBecker BDivitini MBarendsen E(2021)A Memory Diagram for All SeasonsProceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3430665.3456317(150-156)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3430665.3456317
Griffin JCarter JBecker BBrown N(2019)Designing Intentional Bugs for LearningProceedings of the 2019 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research10.1145/3351287.3351289(1-7)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2019
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Pieterse VTaylor E(2018)On the Triviality of the Assignment StatementProceedings of the 7th Computer Science Education Research Conference10.1145/3289406.3289413(51-57)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2018
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Resnyansky DIbili EBillinghurst M(2018)The Potential of Augmented Reality for Computer Science Education2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)10.1109/TALE.2018.8615331(350-356)Online publication date: Dec-2018
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Dragon TDickson PAlphonce CTims JCaspersen MEdwards S(2016)Memory DiagramsProceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education10.1145/2839509.2844607(546-551)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2016
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