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Testing first: emphasizing testing in early programming courses

Authors:

Will Marrero,

Amber SettleAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 37, Issue 3

Pages 4 - 8

https://doi.org/10.1145/1151954.1067451

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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Izu CWeeransinghe A(2024)Testing and Debugging Habits of Intermediate Student Programmers2024 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578650(1-10)Online publication date: 8-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578650
Chisăliţă-Creţu CBota FPop A(2021)Software Testing Education Experiences Using Collaborative PlatformsSmart Education and e-Learning 202110.1007/978-981-16-2834-4_13(149-159)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2834-4_13
Aniche MHermans Fvan Deursen AHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Pragmatic Software Testing EducationProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287461(414-420)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287324.3287461
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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 & Contributors

Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 37, Issue 3

September 2005

418 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1151954

Issue’s Table of Contents

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

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]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 27 June 2005

Published in SIGCSE Volume 37, Issue 3

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Izu CWeeransinghe A(2024)Testing and Debugging Habits of Intermediate Student Programmers2024 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578650(1-10)Online publication date: 8-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON60312.2024.10578650
Chisăliţă-Creţu CBota FPop A(2021)Software Testing Education Experiences Using Collaborative PlatformsSmart Education and e-Learning 202110.1007/978-981-16-2834-4_13(149-159)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2834-4_13
Aniche MHermans Fvan Deursen AHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Pragmatic Software Testing EducationProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287461(414-420)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287324.3287461
Pham RKiesling SSinger LSchneider K(2017)Onboarding inexperienced developersSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-016-9333-725:4(1239-1268)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11219-016-9333-7
Bagui SFridge E(2016)Impact of Automated Software Testing Tools on Reflective Thinking and Student Performance in Introductory Computer Science Programming ClassesInternational Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education10.4018/IJICTE.201601010312:1(22-37)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJICTE.2016010103
Pawelczak D(2016)Benefits of a Testing Framework in Undergraduate C Programming CoursesProcedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.032228(215-221)Online publication date: Jul-2016
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.032
Hooshangi SWeiss RCappos JDecker AEiselt KAlphonce CTims J(2015)Can the Security Mindset Make Students Better Testers?Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/2676723.2677268(404-409)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2676723.2677268
Gaspar ALangevin SBoyer NTindell RArmitage WFriedman RBaker K(2013)A preliminary review of undergraduate programming students' perspectives on writing tests, working with others, & using peer testingProceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology education10.1145/2512276.2512301(109-114)Online publication date: 2-Oct-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2512276.2512301
Majchrzak TUsener C(2013)Evaluating the Synergies of Integrating E-Assessment and Software TestingInformation Systems Development10.1007/978-1-4614-4951-5_15(179-193)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2013
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4951-5_15
Edwards SShams ZCogswell MSenkbeil RSmith King LMusicant DCamp TTymann P(2012)Running students' software tests against each others' codeProceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/2157136.2157202(221-226)Online publication date: 29-Feb-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2157136.2157202
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