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Reading Hierarchies in Code: Assessment of a Basic Computational Skill

Authors:

Thomas H. Park,

Sukrit Chhabra,

Andrea ForteAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '16: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

Pages 302 - 307

https://doi.org/10.1145/2899415.2899435

Published: 11 July 2016 Publication History

Abstract

One of the skills that comprise computational thinking is the ability to read code and reason about the hierarchical relationships between different blocks, expressions, elements, or other types of nodes, depending on the language. In this study, we present three new instruments for assessing different aspects of reading hierarchies in code, including vocabulary, reasoning, and fluency. One of these instruments is Nester, an interactive tool we have designed to elicit mental models about the hierarchical structure of code in computing languages ranging from HTML, CSS, and LaTeX to JavaScript and Lisp. We describe a lab study in which we administered these instruments to 24 participants with varying degrees of web development experience. We report findings from this study, including participants' ability to define, reason about, and manipulate hierarchies in code, and the errors and misconceptions that relate to them. Finally, we discuss avenues for future work.

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Cited By

Ericson BDenny PPrather JDuran RHellas ALeinonen JMiller CMorrison BPearce JRodger SQuille KAlshaigy BBecker BQuille KLaakso M(2022)Parsons Problems and BeyondProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574127(191-234)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571785.3574127
Davidson MWortzman BKo ALi MSherriff MMerkle LCutter PMonge ASheard J(2021)Investigating Item Bias in a CS1 Exam with Differential Item FunctioningProceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3408877.3432397(1142-1148)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3408877.3432397
Poulakis EPolitis P(2021)Computational Thinking Assessment: Literature ReviewResearch on E-Learning and ICT in Education10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_7(111-128)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_7
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Reading Hierarchies in Code: Assessment of a Basic Computational Skill
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computational thinking
      2. Student assessment

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cover image ACM Conferences

ITiCSE '16: Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

July 2016

394 pages

ISBN:9781450342315

DOI:10.1145/2899415

General Chairs:
Alison Clear
Eastern Institute of Technology, New Zealand
,
Ernesto Cuadros-Vargas
San Pablo Catholic University, Peru
,
Program Chairs:
Janet Carter
University of Kent, UK
,
Yvan Tupac
San Pablo Catholic University, Peru

Copyright © 2016 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 the author(s) 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: 11 July 2016

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Bilkent University
SIGCSE

ITiCSE '16: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Conference 2016

July 11 - 13, 2016

Arequipa, Peru

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ITiCSE '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 56 of 147 submissions, 38%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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Cited By

Ericson BDenny PPrather JDuran RHellas ALeinonen JMiller CMorrison BPearce JRodger SQuille KAlshaigy BBecker BQuille KLaakso M(2022)Parsons Problems and BeyondProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574127(191-234)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3571785.3574127
Davidson MWortzman BKo ALi MSherriff MMerkle LCutter PMonge ASheard J(2021)Investigating Item Bias in a CS1 Exam with Differential Item FunctioningProceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3408877.3432397(1142-1148)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3408877.3432397
Poulakis EPolitis P(2021)Computational Thinking Assessment: Literature ReviewResearch on E-Learning and ICT in Education10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_7(111-128)Online publication date: 10-Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64363-8_7
Kim MPark TLiu RForte AHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Understanding Learning Curves and Trajectories in CSS LayoutProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287387(504-510)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287324.3287387
Maria STsiatsos T(2018)Case Study: Integrating Computational Thinking into the Introductory Course of Computer Science via the Use of the Programming Language PythonInteractive Mobile Communication Technologies and Learning10.1007/978-3-319-75175-7_52(531-541)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75175-7_52
Jin KZilora SAyers TBogaard D(2017)Teaching Responsive Web Design to Novice LearnersProceedings of the 18th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/3125659.3125684(115-120)Online publication date: 27-Sep-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3125659.3125684

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