research-article

Comparing mental models of novice programmers when using visual and command line environments

Authors:

Monica Anderson,

Marcus BrownAuthors Info & Claims

ACMSE '12: Proceedings of the 50th annual ACM Southeast Conference

Pages 142 - 147

https://doi.org/10.1145/2184512.2184546

Published: 29 March 2012 Publication History

Abstract

Improving the novice's experience with learning to program has been an important research topic for some time. Appropriate programming environments for novices have been one research area. For example, many departments have adopted visual environments to teach programming as opposed to a command line environment at the beginning stages of a CS curriculum.

The features in standard command line environments are not as assistive to programmers as visual environments. Novices must learn both language syntax and semantics while navigating the file system and compilation tools. On the other hand, visual environments can enable novices to conduct the same behavior with one or more button clicks.

However, the consistency and affordance of certain features in visual environments could cause novices to develop a false perception of programming. In addition, such features may impose the inability for novices to immediately adapt to less assistive environments. In contrast, command line environments may enable novices to develop better mental models for programming because of their limited features, which could also allow them to transition to other environments much easier.

A protocol analysis was conducted on seven students from a CS1 course who learned Python using either IDLE or VIM. The objective was to record and analyze each student's behavior while they use the opposing environment to write a program. This study showed that students who originally used IDLE were not as equipped for transitioning to VIM as their counterparts who transitioned to IDLE.

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Index Terms

Comparing mental models of novice programmers when using visual and command line environments
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction paradigms
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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cover image ACM Conferences

ACMSE '12: Proceedings of the 50th annual ACM Southeast Conference

March 2012

424 pages

ISBN:9781450312035

DOI:10.1145/2184512

Conference Chair:
Randy K. Smith
University of Alabama
,
Program Chair:
Susan V. Vrbsky
University of Alabama

Copyright © 2012 ACM.

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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Published: 29 March 2012

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ACM SE '12: ACM Southeast Regional Conference

March 29 - 31, 2012

Alabama, Tuscaloosa

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ACMSE '12 Paper Acceptance Rate 28 of 56 submissions, 50%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 502 of 1,023 submissions, 49%

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https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578845
Modesti P(2021)A Script-based Approach for Teaching and Assessing Android Application DevelopmentACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/342759321:1(1-24)Online publication date: 22-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3427593
Sirazitdinov ISucci GIvanov V(2020)A Systematic Literature Review of Studies Related to Mental Activities of Software Developers2020 International Conference Nonlinearity, Information and Robotics (NIR)10.1109/NIR50484.2020.9290239(1-11)Online publication date: 3-Dec-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/NIR50484.2020.9290239
Gonzalez-Guerra LLeal-Flores A(2020)Potentializing the problem-solving competence in programming courses through a practice-based learning + tutoring strategy2020 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125154(691-697)Online publication date: Apr-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON45650.2020.9125154
Tze Ying S(2019)Thinking in imperative or objects? A study on how novice programmer thinks when it comes to designing an application2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE)10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225966(1-7)Online publication date: Dec-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225966
Luxton-Reilly ASimon Albluwi IBecker BGiannakos MKumar AOtt LPaterson JScott MSheard JSzabo CRößling GScharlau B(2018)Introductory programming: a systematic literature reviewProceedings Companion of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3293881.3295779(55-106)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
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Chodarev S(2015)Commands composition user interface pattern2015 IEEE 13th International Scientific Conference on Informatics10.1109/Informatics.2015.7377819(120-123)Online publication date: Nov-2015
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Gonzalez-Guerra LLeal-Flores A(2014)Tutoring model to guide students in programming courses to create complete and correct solutions2014 9th International Conference on Computer Science & Education10.1109/ICCSE.2014.6926433(75-80)Online publication date: Aug-2014
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Dillon EAnderson-Herzog MBrown M(2012)Studying the Novice’s Perception of Visual Vs. Command Line Programming Tools in CS1Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting10.1177/107118131256112656:1(605-609)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2012
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