research-article

Building Skills in Introductory Programming

Authors:

José Figueiredo,

Francisco José García-PeñalvoAuthors Info & Claims

TEEM'18: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

Pages 46 - 50

https://doi.org/10.1145/3284179.3284190

Published: 24 October 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Learning to program is difficult and requires a lot of work, dedication, and training. The difficulties of teaching and learning programming are a cause for concern for everyone where this subject is needed. It is a universal problem. The theme of teaching and learning programming difficulties is a serious problem not only for the important concepts underlying and structuring the course, but also for the lack of motivation, the failure, and abandonment that such frustration may imply for the student. It is important to act quickly. The follow-up of each student must be immediate and personalized. It is not possible to follow a traditional system of exposing the syntax and semantics of a language, with demonstrative examples of the concept, something more is needed. It is important to make an individual and constant evaluation of all the concepts that are part of the programming course. With this constant and personalized evaluation, it is possible to build a profile of each student's competences -- building skills in introductory programming. Giving each student the opportunity to improve particular skills. This concept is very similar to the skills of a character in a computer game, which can be acquired through training, performing tasks or practicing a certain ability. The paper goal is to describe a system that allows us to suggest exercises and to evaluate the results automatically. That will allow to construct the profile of the student in programming, according to the different phases of learning. This set of skills allow the teacher to have complete and updated information of the students' knowledge at all times, and thus minimizes the students' demotivation and failure.

References

[1]

Basogain, X. et al. 2017. Computational Thinking in pre-university Blended Learning classrooms. Computers in Human Behavior. (May 2017).

Digital Library

[2]

Bennedsen, J. 2008. Teaching and learning introductory programming: a model-based approach. University of Oslo.

[3]

Brown, N.C.C. and Altadmri, A. 2017. Novice Java Programming Mistakes: Large-Scale Data vs. Educator Beliefs. Trans. Comput. Educ. 17, 2 (2017).

Digital Library

[4]

Bubica, N. and Boljat, I. 2015. PROGRAMMING NOVICES' MENTAL MODELS. 7th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Barcelona, 2015).

[5]

Carmo, L. et al. Learning styles and problem solving strategies.

[6]

Category:Programming Tasks - Rosetta Code: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Category:Programming_Tasks. Accessed: 2018-06--28.

[7]

Code Katas - codekatas.org: http://www.codekatas.org/. Accessed: 2018-06--27.

[8]

CodeAbbey - programming problems to practice and learn for beginners: http://www.codeabbey.com/. Accessed: 2018-06--28.

[9]

CodeKata: http://codekata.pragprog.com/. Accessed: 2018-06--27.

[10]

Cole, E. 2015. On Pre-requisite Skills for Universal Computational Thinking Education. (2015), 253--254.

Digital Library

[11]

Cprogramming.com: https://www.cprogramming.com. Accessed: 2018-06--28.

[12]

Figueiredo, J. et al. 2016. Ne-course for learning programming. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality - TEEM '16 (New York, New York, USA, 2016), 549--553.

Digital Library

[13]

Figueiredo, J. and García-Peñalvo, F.J. 2017. Improving Computational Thinking Using Follow and Give Instructions. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality - TEEM 2017 (New York, New York, USA, 2017), 1--7.

Digital Library

[14]

Fincher, S. et al. 2005. Computer Science at Kent programming courses. 1 (2005).

[15]

García-Peñalvo, F.J. 2016. What Computational Thinking Is. Journal of Information Technology Research. 9, 93 (2016).

[16]

Gerdes, A. et al. 2012. An interactive functional programming tutor. Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education - ITiCSE '12 (New York, New York, USA, 2012), 250.

Digital Library

[17]

GitHub - Gamontal/awesone-katas: A curated list of code katas:.

[18]

Gomes, A. de J. 2010. Dificuldades de aprendizagem de programação de computadores: contributos para a sua compreensão e resolução. Dificuldades de ap rendizage m de programação de computadores: contributos para a sua compreensão e resolução. (2010).

[19]

Grover, S. and Pea, R. 2013. Computational Thinking in K-12: A Review of the State of the Field. Educational Researcher. 42, 1 (2013).

[20]

Hoc, J.-M. and Nguyen-Xuan, A. 1990. Language Semantics, Mental Models and Analogy. J.-M. Hoc, T. R. G. Green, R. Samurçay, & D. J. Gilmore (Eds.), Psychology of Programming. (1990), 139--156.

[21]

Jenkins, T. 2002. On the Difficulty of Learning to Program. Language. 4, (2002), 53--58.

[22]

Lahtinen, E. et al. 2005. A study of the difficulties of novice programmers. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. 37, 3 (2005), 14--18.

Digital Library

[23]

Lye, S.Y. and Koh, J.H.L. 2014. Review on teaching and learning of computational thinking through programming: What is next for K-12? Computers in Human Behavior. 41, (2014), 51--61.

Digital Library

[24]

Mason, D. et al. 2016. Computational Thinking as a Liberal Study. Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE '16). (2016), 24--29.

Digital Library

[25]

Milková, E. 2015. Development of Programming Capabilities Inspired by Foreign Language Teaching. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 171, (Jan. 2015), 172--177.

[26]

Programming & Engineering Questions & Answers - Sanfoundry: https://www.sanfoundry.com/. Accessed: 2018-06--28.

[27]

Queirós, R.A.P. and Leal, J.P. 2012. PETCHA. Proceedings of the 17th ACM annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education - ITiCSE '12 (New York, New York, USA, Jul. 2012), 192.

[28]

Robins, A. et al. 2016. Learning and Teaching Programming: A Review and Discussion. 3408, April (2016), 37--41.

[29]

Román-González, M. et al. 2017. Which cognitive abilities underlie computational thinking? Criterion validity of the Computational Thinking Test. Computers in Human Behavior. 72, (Jul. 2017), 678--691.

Digital Library

[30]

Salleh, S.M. et al. 2013. Analysis of Research in Programming Teaching Tools: An Initial Review. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 103, (Nov. 2013), 127--135.

[31]

Settle, A. et al. 2013. Beyond computer science: Computational thinking across disciplines. 18th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. (2013), 311--312.

Digital Library

[32]

Shuhidan, S. et al. 2009. A taxonomic study of novice programming summative assessment. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology Series. 95, (2009), 147--156.

Digital Library

[33]

Simple Programming Problems: https://adriann.github.io/programming_problems.html. Accessed: 2018-06--27.

[34]

Tan, J. et al. 2014. Case-based teaching using the Laboratory Animal System for learning C/C++ programming. Computers & Education. 77, (Aug. 2014), 39--49.

[35]

Walden, J. et al. 2013. An Informatics Perspective on Computational Thinking. Proceedings of the 18th ACM conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education. ACM, 2013. (2013), 4--9.

Digital Library

[36]

Yadav, A. et al. 2016. Computational Thinking for All: Pedagogical Approaches to Embedding 21st Century Problem Solving in K-12 Classrooms. TechTrends. 60, 6 (2016).

[37]

Yadav, A. et al. 2014. Computational Thinking in Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education. ACM Transactions on Computing Education. 14, 1 (2014).

Digital Library

[38]

YADAV, A. and STEPHENSON, C.H.H. 2017. Computational Thinking for Teacher Education. Communications of the ACM. 60, 4 (2017).

Digital Library

[39]

Ying Li 2016. Teaching programming based on Computational Thinking. 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (Oct. 2016), 1--7.

Cited By

Figueiredo JGarcía-Peñalvo F(2024)Design science research applied to difficulties of teaching and learning initial programmingUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-022-00941-423:3(1151-1161)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-022-00941-4
Hibbi F(2024)A Literature Review of Tutoring Systems: Pedagogical Approach and ToolsArtificial Intelligence, Data Science and Applications10.1007/978-3-031-48465-0_13(99-104)Online publication date: 5-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48465-0_13
Haruna A(2023)Towards enhancing teaching and learning computer programming in Saudi ArabiaInternational Journal of ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES10.21833/ijaas.2023.03.02410:3(196-204)Online publication date: Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2023.03.024
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Building Skills in Introductory Programming
1. Applied computing
  1. Education

Recommendations

Teaching and learning strategies of programming for university courses
TEEM'19: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

It is consensual to consider teaching and learning programming difficult. A lot of work, dedication, and motivation are required for teachers and students. Since the first programming languages have emerged, the problem of teaching and learning ...
Teaching Introductory Programming: A Quantitative Evaluation of Different Approaches

Teaching programming to beginners is a complex task. In this article, the effects of three factors—choice of programming language, problem-solving training, and the use of formative assessment—on learning to program were investigated. The study adopted ...
Intelligent Tutoring Systems approach to Introductory Programming Courses
TEEM'20: Eighth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

Programming is difficult and requires a lot of work and dedication from the students and teachers. Programming is part of the curriculum of many courses, but especially in computer science, and most teaching and learning is problematic. Despite all the ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

TEEM'18: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

October 2018

1072 pages

ISBN:9781450365185

DOI:10.1145/3284179

Editor:
Francisco José García-Peñalvo
University of Salamanca

Copyright © 2018 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]

In-Cooperation

University of Salamanca: University of Salamanca

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 24 October 2018

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed limited

Conference

TEEM'18

TEEM'18: Sixth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

October 24 - 26, 2018

Salamanca, Spain

Acceptance Rates

TEEM'18 Paper Acceptance Rate 151 of 243 submissions, 62%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 496 of 705 submissions, 70%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

23
Total Citations
View Citations
397
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)33
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2

Reflects downloads up to 16 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Figueiredo JGarcía-Peñalvo F(2024)Design science research applied to difficulties of teaching and learning initial programmingUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-022-00941-423:3(1151-1161)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-022-00941-4
Hibbi F(2024)A Literature Review of Tutoring Systems: Pedagogical Approach and ToolsArtificial Intelligence, Data Science and Applications10.1007/978-3-031-48465-0_13(99-104)Online publication date: 5-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48465-0_13
Haruna A(2023)Towards enhancing teaching and learning computer programming in Saudi ArabiaInternational Journal of ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES10.21833/ijaas.2023.03.02410:3(196-204)Online publication date: Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2023.03.024
Hidalgo Suarez CBucheli-Guerrero VOrdóñez-Eraso H(2023)Artificial Intelligence and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Programming: A Systematic Mapping StudyTecnura10.14483/22487638.1963727:75(175-206)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.14483/22487638.19637
Alghamdi SBull CKharrufa ALaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)Exploring the Support for Self-Regulation in Adult Online Informal Programming Learning: A Scoping ReviewProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3587102.3588811(361-367)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3587102.3588811
Araújo CHenriques PCerqueira J(2023)OntoCnE, characterizing Learning Resources for training Computational Thinking2023 International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE)10.1109/SIIE59826.2023.10423710(1-6)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/SIIE59826.2023.10423710
Eusoff RSalleh SShukur Z(2023)The Usability of P2P-FLIP Framework for Teaching Programming via Flipped Classroom2023 International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informatics (ICEEI)10.1109/ICEEI59426.2023.10346938(1-5)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEEI59426.2023.10346938
Figueiredo JGarcía-Peñalvo F(2023)ChatGPT in the Teaching and Learning Initial Programming: A Case StudyProceedings of TEEM 202310.1007/978-981-97-1814-6_15(156-162)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-981-97-1814-6_15
Lima LSaraiva Faes LHenriques PCardoso A(2023)AR-Based Resources to Train Computational Thinking SkillsPerspectives and Trends in Education and Technology10.1007/978-981-19-6585-2_61(691-702)Online publication date: 3-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6585-2_61
Figueiredo JGarcia-Penalvo F(2022)Strategies to increase success in learning programming2022 International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE)10.1109/SIIE56031.2022.9982358(1-6)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/SIIE56031.2022.9982358
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents