Article

Testing first: emphasizing testing in early programming courses

Authors:

Will Marrero,

Amber SettleAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '05: Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

Pages 4 - 8

https://doi.org/10.1145/1067445.1067451

Published: 27 June 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

The complexity of languages like Java and C++ can make introductory programming classes in these languages extremely challenging for many students. Part of the complexity comes from the large number of concepts and language features that students are expected to learn while having little time for adequate practice or examples. A second source of difficulty is the emphasis that object-oriented programming places on abstraction. We believe that by placing a larger emphasis on testing in programming assignments in these introductory courses, students have an opportunity for extra practice with the language, and this affords them a gentler transition into the abstract thinking needed for programming. In this paper we describe how we emphasized testing in introductory programming assignments by requiring that students design and implement tests before starting on the program itself. We also provide some preliminary results and student reactions.

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Cited By

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Straubinger PFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MGama KSiegmund J(2024)Gamifying a Software Testing Course with Continuous IntegrationProceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3639474.3640054(34-45)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639474.3640054
Nurue HGray JLo DGamess E(2024)A Testing Extension for ScratchProceedings of the 2024 ACM Southeast Conference10.1145/3603287.3651217(266-271)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3603287.3651217
Straubinger PCaspari LFraser G(2023)Code Critters: A Block-Based Testing Game2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops (ICSTW)10.1109/ICSTW58534.2023.00077(426-429)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSTW58534.2023.00077
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Index Terms

Testing first: emphasizing testing in early programming courses
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        Information science education

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Information

Published In

ITiCSE '05: Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education

June 2005

440 pages

ISBN:1595930248

DOI:10.1145/1067445

Conference Chairs:
José Cunha
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
,
William Fleischman
Villanova University
,
Program Chairs:
Viera K. Proulx
Northeastern University
,
João Lourenço
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 37, Issue 3
September 2005
418 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1151954
Issue’s Table of Contents

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: 27 June 2005

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ITiCSE05

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ITiCSE05: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

June 27 - 29, 2005

Caparica, Portugal

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

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Cited By

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Straubinger PFraser GRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey MGama KSiegmund J(2024)Gamifying a Software Testing Course with Continuous IntegrationProceedings of the 46th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3639474.3640054(34-45)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3639474.3640054
Nurue HGray JLo DGamess E(2024)A Testing Extension for ScratchProceedings of the 2024 ACM Southeast Conference10.1145/3603287.3651217(266-271)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3603287.3651217
Straubinger PCaspari LFraser G(2023)Code Critters: A Block-Based Testing Game2023 IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation Workshops (ICSTW)10.1109/ICSTW58534.2023.00077(426-429)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSTW58534.2023.00077
Doorn NVos TMarín BBarendsen E(2023)Set the right example when teaching programming: Test Informed Learning with Examples (TILE)2023 IEEE Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST)10.1109/ICST57152.2023.00033(269-280)Online publication date: Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICST57152.2023.00033
Prasad SGreenman BNelson TWrenn JKrishnamurthi S(2022)Making Hay from Wheats: A Classsourcing Method to Identify MisconceptionsProceedings of the 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3564721.3564726(1-7)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3564721.3564726
Jenkins JTerwilliger M(2020)Examining strategies to improve student success in CS1Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3381631.338164935:4(124-132)Online publication date: 30-Jan-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3381631.3381649
Bai GRothermel GBae D(2020)Improving students' testing practicesProceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings10.1145/3377812.3381401(218-221)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3377812.3381401
Kangas VPirttinen NNygren HLeinonen JHellas AZhang MYang BCooper SLuxton-Reilly A(2019)Does Creating Programming Assignments with Tests Lead to Improved Performance in Writing Unit Tests?Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Global Computing Education10.1145/3300115.3309516(106-112)Online publication date: 9-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3300115.3309516
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
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3293881.3295779
Wrenn JKrishnamurthi SFisler KMalmi LKorhonen AMcCartney RPetersen AMalmi LMcCartney R(2018)Who Tests the Testers?Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3230977.3230999(51-59)Online publication date: 8-Aug-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3230977.3230999
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