research-article

Notional machines and introductory programming education

Author:

Juha SorvaAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), Volume 13, Issue 2

Article No.: 8, Pages 1 - 31

https://doi.org/10.1145/2483710.2483713

Published: 01 July 2013 Publication History

Abstract

This article brings together, summarizes, and comments on several threads of research that have contributed to our understanding of the challenges that novice programmers face when learning about the runtime dynamics of programs and the role of the computer in program execution. More specifically, the review covers the literature on programming misconceptions, the cognitive theory of mental models, constructivist theory of knowledge and learning, phenomenographic research on experiencing programming, and the theory of threshold concepts. These bodies of work are examined in relation to the concept of a “notional machine”—an abstract computer for executing programs of a particular kind. As a whole, the literature points to notional machines as a major challenge in introductory programming education. It is argued that instructors should acknowledge the notional machine as an explicit learning objective and address it in teaching. Teaching within some programming paradigms, such as object-oriented programming, may benefit from using multiple notional machines at different levels of abstraction. Pointers to some promising pedagogical techniques are provided.

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Index Terms

Notional machines and introductory programming education
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education

ACM Transactions on Computing Education Volume 13, Issue 2

June 2013

82 pages

EISSN:1946-6226

DOI:10.1145/2483710

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2013 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]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2013

Accepted: 01 January 2013

Revised: 01 September 2012

Received: 01 May 2012

Published in TOCE Volume 13, Issue 2

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