A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations

Ian  Utting; Allison Elliott Tew; Mike  McCracken; Lynda Ann Thomas; Dennis Bouvier; Roger Frye; James Paterson; Michael Caspersen; Yifat Ben-David Kolikant; Juha Sorva; Tadeusz Wilusz

doi:10.1145/2543882.2543884

A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations

Ian Utting, Allison Elliott Tew, Mike McCracken, Lynda Ann Thomas, Dennis Bouvier, Roger Frye, James Paterson, Michael Caspersen, Yifat Ben-David Kolikant, Juha Sorva, Tadeusz Wilusz

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an ITiCSE working group convened in 2013 to review and revisit the influential ITiCSE 2001 McCracken working group that reported [18] on novice programmers' ability to solve a specified programming problem. Like that study, the one described here asked students to implement a simple program. Unlike the original study, students' in this study were given significant scaffolding for their efforts, including a test harness. Their knowledge of programming concepts was also assessed via a standard language-neutral survey.

One of the significant findings of the original working group was that students were less successful at the programming task than their teachers expected, so in this study teachers' expectations were explicitly gathered and matched with students' performance. This study found a significant correlation between students' performance in the practical task and the survey, and a significant effect on performance in the practical task attributable to the use of the test harness. The study also found a much better correlation between teachers' expectations of their students' performance than in the 2001 working group.

Original language	English
Pages	15-32
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2543882.2543884
Publication status	Published - 2013
Event	Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education - University of Kent, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Duration: 01 Jul 2013 → 03 Jul 2013

Conference

Conference	Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education
Country/Territory	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Period	01 Jul 2013 → 03 Jul 2013

Keywords

programming
CS1
assessment
replication

Access to Document

10.1145/2543882.2543884

Permanent link

Persistent link

Cite this

Utting, I., Tew, A. E., McCracken, M., Thomas, L. A., Bouvier, D., Frye, R., Paterson, J., Caspersen, M., Kolikant, Y. B.-D., Sorva, J., & Wilusz, T. (2013). A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations. 15-32. Paper presented at Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. https://doi.org/10.1145/2543882.2543884

@conference{b049cc26ff424dee8df8bd72e0e3b3a7,

title = "A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations",

abstract = "This paper describes the results of an ITiCSE working group convened in 2013 to review and revisit the influential ITiCSE 2001 McCracken working group that reported [18] on novice programmers' ability to solve a specified programming problem. Like that study, the one described here asked students to implement a simple program. Unlike the original study, students' in this study were given significant scaffolding for their efforts, including a test harness. Their knowledge of programming concepts was also assessed via a standard language-neutral survey.One of the significant findings of the original working group was that students were less successful at the programming task than their teachers expected, so in this study teachers' expectations were explicitly gathered and matched with students' performance. This study found a significant correlation between students' performance in the practical task and the survey, and a significant effect on performance in the practical task attributable to the use of the test harness. The study also found a much better correlation between teachers' expectations of their students' performance than in the 2001 working group.",

keywords = "programming , CS1, assessment, replication",

author = "Ian Utting and Tew, {Allison Elliott} and Mike McCracken and Thomas, {Lynda Ann} and Dennis Bouvier and Roger Frye and James Paterson and Michael Caspersen and Kolikant, {Yifat Ben-David} and Juha Sorva and Tadeusz Wilusz",

year = "2013",

doi = "10.1145/2543882.2543884",

language = "English",

pages = "15--32",

note = "Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education ; Conference date: 01-07-2013 Through 03-07-2013",

}

Utting, I, Tew, AE, McCracken, M, Thomas, LA, Bouvier, D, Frye, R, Paterson, J, Caspersen, M, Kolikant, YB-D, Sorva, J & Wilusz, T 2013, 'A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations', Paper presented at Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 01 Jul 2013 - 03 Jul 2013 pp. 15-32. https://doi.org/10.1145/2543882.2543884

A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations. / Utting, Ian ; Tew, Allison Elliott; McCracken, Mike et al.
2013. 15-32 Paper presented at Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

TY - CONF

T1 - A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations

AU - Utting, Ian

AU - Tew, Allison Elliott

AU - McCracken, Mike

AU - Thomas, Lynda Ann

AU - Bouvier, Dennis

AU - Frye, Roger

AU - Paterson, James

AU - Caspersen, Michael

AU - Kolikant, Yifat Ben-David

AU - Sorva, Juha

AU - Wilusz, Tadeusz

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This paper describes the results of an ITiCSE working group convened in 2013 to review and revisit the influential ITiCSE 2001 McCracken working group that reported [18] on novice programmers' ability to solve a specified programming problem. Like that study, the one described here asked students to implement a simple program. Unlike the original study, students' in this study were given significant scaffolding for their efforts, including a test harness. Their knowledge of programming concepts was also assessed via a standard language-neutral survey.One of the significant findings of the original working group was that students were less successful at the programming task than their teachers expected, so in this study teachers' expectations were explicitly gathered and matched with students' performance. This study found a significant correlation between students' performance in the practical task and the survey, and a significant effect on performance in the practical task attributable to the use of the test harness. The study also found a much better correlation between teachers' expectations of their students' performance than in the 2001 working group.

AB - This paper describes the results of an ITiCSE working group convened in 2013 to review and revisit the influential ITiCSE 2001 McCracken working group that reported [18] on novice programmers' ability to solve a specified programming problem. Like that study, the one described here asked students to implement a simple program. Unlike the original study, students' in this study were given significant scaffolding for their efforts, including a test harness. Their knowledge of programming concepts was also assessed via a standard language-neutral survey.One of the significant findings of the original working group was that students were less successful at the programming task than their teachers expected, so in this study teachers' expectations were explicitly gathered and matched with students' performance. This study found a significant correlation between students' performance in the practical task and the survey, and a significant effect on performance in the practical task attributable to the use of the test harness. The study also found a much better correlation between teachers' expectations of their students' performance than in the 2001 working group.

KW - programming

KW - CS1

KW - assessment

KW - replication

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/2160/13527

U2 - 10.1145/2543882.2543884

DO - 10.1145/2543882.2543884

M3 - Paper

SP - 15

EP - 32

T2 - Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education

Y2 - 1 July 2013 through 3 July 2013

ER -

Utting I, Tew AE, McCracken M, Thomas LA, Bouvier D, Frye R et al.. A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations. 2013. Paper presented at Proceedings of the ITiCSE working group reports conference on Innovation and Technology in computer science education, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. doi: 10.1145/2543882.2543884

A fresh look at novice programmers' performance and their teachers' expectations

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Permanent link

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this