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Identifying Student Difficulties with Basic Data Structures

Authors:

Daniel Zingaro,

Cynthia Taylor,

Michael Clancy,

Soohyun Nam Liao,

Kevin C. WebbAuthors Info & Claims

ICER '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

Pages 169 - 177

https://doi.org/10.1145/3230977.3231005

Published: 08 August 2018 Publication History

Abstract

To be effective instructors and CS education researchers, we must identify and understand student difficulties surrounding core computing topics. This study examines student difficulties with the basic data structures commonly found in CS2 courses. Initial exploration of student thinking began with think-aloud interviews with students. These interviews centered on open-ended questions that were iteratively improved upon based on analysis of interview transcripts. The revised open-ended questions were then posed to 249 students during an end-of-term final exam study session. Using the explanations and justifications included by students, responses to the questions were coded and summarized. This work characterizes the difficulties revealed by student responses, and provides details of their prevalence among the examined student population.

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Cited By

Silva de Oliveira GGao ZHeckman SLynch CStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Exploring Novice Programmers' Testing Behavior: A First Step to Define Coding StruggleProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630851(1251-1257)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630851
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
Miedema DLiut MFletcher GAivaloglou E(2023)“There is no ambiguity on what to return”: Investigating the Prevalence of SQL MisconceptionsProceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631821(1-12)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
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Index Terms

Identifying Student Difficulties with Basic Data Structures
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICER '18: Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

August 2018

307 pages

ISBN:9781450356282

DOI:10.1145/3230977

General Chairs:
Lauri Malmi
Aalto University, Finland
,
Ari Korhonen
Aalto University, Finland
,
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA
,
Andrew Petersen
University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Lauri Malmi
Aalto University, Finland
,
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA

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]

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SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 08 August 2018

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National Science Foundation

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ICER '18

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SIGCSE

ICER '18: International Computing Education Research Conference

August 13 - 15, 2018

Espoo, Finland

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ICER '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 28 of 125 submissions, 22%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

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ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research

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Cited By

Silva de Oliveira GGao ZHeckman SLynch CStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Exploring Novice Programmers' Testing Behavior: A First Step to Define Coding StruggleProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630851(1251-1257)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630851
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
Miedema DLiut MFletcher GAivaloglou E(2023)“There is no ambiguity on what to return”: Investigating the Prevalence of SQL MisconceptionsProceedings of the 23rd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3631802.3631821(1-12)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3631802.3631821
Smarr SGilbert J(2023)Experiences Teaching Data Structures at HBCUs (and the Case for Cultural Pedagogy)2023 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)10.1109/RESPECT60069.2023.00023(77-81)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/RESPECT60069.2023.00023
Jagadeesha ARayavaram PMarwad JNarain SLee C(2023)Integrating Data Structures and Algorithms in K-12 Education using Block-based Programming2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125165(1-10)Online publication date: 1-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125165
Rojas-Salazar ARojas-Salazar JHaahr M(2023)Evaluating Learning Outcomes and Intrinsic Motivation: A Case Study of DS-Hacker 3DSerious Games10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_24(314-327)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2023
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Miedema DFletcher GAivaloglou E(2022)Expert Perspectives on Student Errors in SQLACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/355139223:1(1-28)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3551392
Lionelle AGhosh SOurada SMusser WMerkle LDoyle MSheard JSoh LDorn B(2022)Increase Performance and RetentionProceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education - Volume 110.1145/3478431.3499340(349-355)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2022
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Feijóo-García PKapoor AGardner-McCune CRagan E(2022)Effects of a Block-Based Scaffolded Tool on Students’ Introduction to Hierarchical Data StructuresIEEE Transactions on Education10.1109/TE.2021.310960465:2(191-199)Online publication date: 1-May-2022
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Okuboyejo OEwert SSanders I(2022)Goofs in the Class: Students’ Errors and Misconceptions When Learning Regular ExpressionsICT Education10.1007/978-3-030-92858-2_4(57-71)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
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