A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data

Kate Sanders; Sally Fincher; Dennis Bouvier; Gary Lewandowski; Briana Morrison; Laurie Murphy; Marian Petre; Brad Richards; Josh Tenenberg; Lynda Thomas; Richard Anderson; Ruth Anderson; Sue Fitzgerald; Alicia Gutschow; Susan Haller; Raymond Lister; Renée McCauley; John McTaggart; Christine Prasad; Terry Scott; Dermot Shinners-Kennedy; Suzanne Westbrook; Carol Zander

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x

A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data

Kate Sanders, Sally Fincher, Dennis Bouvier, Gary Lewandowski, Briana Morrison, Laurie Murphy, Marian Petre, Brad Richards, Josh Tenenberg, Lynda Thomas, Richard Anderson, Ruth Anderson, Sue Fitzgerald, Alicia Gutschow, Susan Haller, Raymond Lister, Renée McCauley, John McTaggart, Christine Prasad, Terry ScottDermot Shinners-Kennedy, Suzanne Westbrook, Carol Zander

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of the use of a repeated single-criterion card sort with an unusually large, diverse participant group. The study, whose goal was to elicit novice programmers' knowledge of programming concepts, involved over 20 researchers from four continents and 276 participants drawn from 20 different institutions. In this paper we present the design of the study and the unexpected result that there were few discernible systematic differences in the population. The study was one of the activities of the National Science Foundation funded Bootstrapping Research in Computer Science Education project (2003).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	121-128
Number of pages	8
Journal	Expert Systems
Volume	22
Issue number	3
Early online date	23 Jun 2005
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x
Publication status	Published - Jul 2005

Keywords

computer science education research
card sort
elicitation
programming concepts

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Sanders, K., Fincher, S., Bouvier, D., Lewandowski, G., Morrison, B., Murphy, L., Petre, M., Richards, B., Tenenberg, J., Thomas, L., Anderson, R., Anderson, R., Fitzgerald, S., Gutschow, A., Haller, S., Lister, R., McCauley, R., McTaggart, J., Prasad, C., ... Zander, C. (2005). A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data. Expert Systems , 22(3), 121-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x

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title = "A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data",

abstract = "This paper presents a case study of the use of a repeated single-criterion card sort with an unusually large, diverse participant group. The study, whose goal was to elicit novice programmers' knowledge of programming concepts, involved over 20 researchers from four continents and 276 participants drawn from 20 different institutions. In this paper we present the design of the study and the unexpected result that there were few discernible systematic differences in the population. The study was one of the activities of the National Science Foundation funded Bootstrapping Research in Computer Science Education project (2003).",

keywords = "computer science education research, card sort, elicitation, programming concepts",

author = "Kate Sanders and Sally Fincher and Dennis Bouvier and Gary Lewandowski and Briana Morrison and Laurie Murphy and Marian Petre and Brad Richards and Josh Tenenberg and Lynda Thomas and Richard Anderson and Ruth Anderson and Sue Fitzgerald and Alicia Gutschow and Susan Haller and Raymond Lister and Ren{\'e}e McCauley and John McTaggart and Christine Prasad and Terry Scott and Dermot Shinners-Kennedy and Suzanne Westbrook and Carol Zander",

note = "Sanders, K., Fincher, S., Bouvier, D., Lewandowski, G., Morrison, B., Murphy, L., Petre, M., Richards, B., Tenenberg, J., Thomas, L., Anderson, R., Anderson, R., Fitzgerald, S., Gutschow, A., Haller, S., Lister, R., McCauley, R., McTaggart, J., Prasad, C., Scott, T., Shinners-Kennedy, D., Westbrook, S., Zander, C. (2005). A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data. Expert Systems , 22 (3), 121-128.",

year = "2005",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x",

language = "English",

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Sanders, K, Fincher, S, Bouvier, D, Lewandowski, G, Morrison, B, Murphy, L, Petre, M, Richards, B, Tenenberg, J, Thomas, L, Anderson, R, Anderson, R, Fitzgerald, S, Gutschow, A, Haller, S, Lister, R, McCauley, R, McTaggart, J, Prasad, C, Scott, T, Shinners-Kennedy, D, Westbrook, S & Zander, C 2005, 'A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data', Expert Systems , vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 121-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x

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T1 - A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data

AU - Sanders, Kate

AU - Fincher, Sally

AU - Bouvier, Dennis

AU - Lewandowski, Gary

AU - Morrison, Briana

AU - Murphy, Laurie

AU - Petre, Marian

AU - Richards, Brad

AU - Tenenberg, Josh

AU - Thomas, Lynda

AU - Anderson, Richard

AU - Anderson, Ruth

AU - Fitzgerald, Sue

AU - Gutschow, Alicia

AU - Haller, Susan

AU - Lister, Raymond

AU - McCauley, Renée

AU - McTaggart, John

AU - Prasad, Christine

AU - Scott, Terry

AU - Shinners-Kennedy, Dermot

AU - Westbrook, Suzanne

AU - Zander, Carol

N1 - Sanders, K., Fincher, S., Bouvier, D., Lewandowski, G., Morrison, B., Murphy, L., Petre, M., Richards, B., Tenenberg, J., Thomas, L., Anderson, R., Anderson, R., Fitzgerald, S., Gutschow, A., Haller, S., Lister, R., McCauley, R., McTaggart, J., Prasad, C., Scott, T., Shinners-Kennedy, D., Westbrook, S., Zander, C. (2005). A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data. Expert Systems , 22 (3), 121-128.

PY - 2005/7

Y1 - 2005/7

N2 - This paper presents a case study of the use of a repeated single-criterion card sort with an unusually large, diverse participant group. The study, whose goal was to elicit novice programmers' knowledge of programming concepts, involved over 20 researchers from four continents and 276 participants drawn from 20 different institutions. In this paper we present the design of the study and the unexpected result that there were few discernible systematic differences in the population. The study was one of the activities of the National Science Foundation funded Bootstrapping Research in Computer Science Education project (2003).

AB - This paper presents a case study of the use of a repeated single-criterion card sort with an unusually large, diverse participant group. The study, whose goal was to elicit novice programmers' knowledge of programming concepts, involved over 20 researchers from four continents and 276 participants drawn from 20 different institutions. In this paper we present the design of the study and the unexpected result that there were few discernible systematic differences in the population. The study was one of the activities of the National Science Foundation funded Bootstrapping Research in Computer Science Education project (2003).

KW - computer science education research

KW - card sort

KW - elicitation

KW - programming concepts

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/2160/36005

U2 - 10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1468-0394.2005.00303.x

M3 - Article

SN - 1468-0394

VL - 22

SP - 121

EP - 128

JO - Expert Systems

JF - Expert Systems

IS - 3

ER -

A multi-institutional study of novice programmers' understanding of computer-science concepts using card-sort data

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Keywords

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