Article

What does it take to learn 'programming thinking'?

Authors:

Anna Eckerdal,

Michael Thuné,

Anders BerglundAuthors Info & Claims

ICER '05: Proceedings of the first international workshop on Computing education research

Pages 135 - 142

https://doi.org/10.1145/1089786.1089799

Published: 01 October 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

What is 'programming thinking'? In a study, first year students were interviewed on their understanding of what learning to program means. Many students talked about learning to program in terms of learning a special way to think, different from other subjects studied. Many of these students had problems in describing what this special way to think included. The analysis of the interviews revealed some features of this thinking, as expressed by the students. In this paper we discuss and analyse 'programming thinking' using phenomenography as our research approach [7]. Our results are coherent with Hazzan's research on the learning theory 'process-object duality' [4], but points to problems in learning of object-oriented programming not indicated in 'process-object duality'. In comparing the results form our own study with this learning theory, we discuss what this might mean in learning object-oriented programming.

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O. Hazzan. How students attempt to reduce abstraction in the learning of computer science. Computer Science Education, 13(2):95--122, 2003.

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Cited By

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Li JLi GLi YJin Z(2024)Structured Chain-of-Thought Prompting for Code GenerationACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/369063534:2(1-23)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2024
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Boguslawski SDeer RDawson M(2024)Programming education and learner motivation in the age of generative AI: student and educator perspectivesInformation and Learning Sciences10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0163Online publication date: 10-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0163
KATYETOVA A(2023)DEVELOPMENT OF ALGORITHMIC AND PROGRAMMING THINKING AT PRIMARY SCHOOL IN STATE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMSTrends in Education10.5507/tvv.2023.00115:1(26-36)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.5507/tvv.2023.001
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Index Terms

What does it take to learn 'programming thinking'?
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Object oriented languages

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Reviews

Reviewer: Ann E. Fleury

One student said, "It is the understanding of how the programming language is built" (page 137). Another student said, "You have a problem that you solve in different ways, and then you perhaps find the best way" (page 139). These are two very different student understandings of "programming thinking," as expressed by college students in an introductory programming course. This thought-provoking paper uses the empirical, qualitative research approach of phenomenography as a lens through which to view students' perspectives on, and conceptions of, computer programming. As required by phenomenography, the students interviewed were chosen to maximize the variation in previous knowledge, experience, and education. In the interview transcriptions, the researchers found five qualitatively different ways that students understood what is involved in learning to program. The researchers discuss these student understandings in light of previous research. They also use them to provide hints for educators. Programming instructors should read this paper to get a glimpse into the minds of their students. Educational researchers interested in computer science education should also read this paper, for its clear summary of phenomenography, and for its relevant references. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Published In

ICER '05: Proceedings of the first international workshop on Computing education research

October 2005

182 pages

ISBN:1595930434

DOI:10.1145/1089786

Program Chairs:
Richard Anderson
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
,
Sally A. Fincher
University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
,
Mark Guzdial
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

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

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Published: 01 October 2005

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ICER05

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ICER05: International Computing Education Research Workshop 2005

October 1 - 2, 2005

WA, Seattle, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

View all

Li JLi GLi YJin Z(2024)Structured Chain-of-Thought Prompting for Code GenerationACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/369063534:2(1-23)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3690635
Boguslawski SDeer RDawson M(2024)Programming education and learner motivation in the age of generative AI: student and educator perspectivesInformation and Learning Sciences10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0163Online publication date: 10-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-10-2023-0163
KATYETOVA A(2023)DEVELOPMENT OF ALGORITHMIC AND PROGRAMMING THINKING AT PRIMARY SCHOOL IN STATE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMSTrends in Education10.5507/tvv.2023.00115:1(26-36)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.5507/tvv.2023.001
Ampofo Atta Senior I(2023)effects of students’ perception on self-efficacy in programming courses at the tertiary institutionUkrainian Journal of Educational Studies and Information Technology10.32919/uesit.2023.02.0211:2(85-98)Online publication date: 30-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.32919/uesit.2023.02.02
Draper SMaguire J(2023)The Different Types of Contributions to Knowledge (in CER): All Needed, But Not All RecognisedACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/348705323:1(1-36)Online publication date: 18-Jan-2023
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Eckerdal ABerglund AThuné M(2023)Learning programming practice and programming theory in the computer laboratoryEuropean Journal of Engineering Education10.1080/03043797.2023.229495349:2(330-347)Online publication date: 26-Dec-2023
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Kuz AAriste M(2022)Análisis y revisión de softwares educativos para el aprendizaje de la programación en entornos lúdicosTecné, Episteme y Didaxis: TED10.17227/ted.num52-13159(117-136)Online publication date: 25-Jul-2022
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Malmi LSheard JKinnunen PSimon Sinclair J(2022)Development and Use of Domain-specific Learning Theories, Models, and Instruments in Computing EducationACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/353022123:1(1-48)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
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Batur FBrinda T(2022)Students’ Conceptions of Programming in the Context of Game DesignDigital Transformation of Education and Learning - Past, Present and Future10.1007/978-3-030-97986-7_7(79-90)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2022
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Braune GMühling A(2020)Learning to programProceedings of the 15th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education10.1145/3421590.3421597(1-9)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2020
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