1. The Challenges of Learning to Program Lori Postner University of Washington

2. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 2 Research Questions Do students find learning to program hard? What do they find hard about it? What resources do they draw upon to help them with their difficulties?

3. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 3 Previous Research Mostly from cognitive perspective studying Expert-novice differences Students’ misconceptions Common programming bugs Main drawbacks Laboratory experiments Removed resources Separated students’ difficulties from teaching approach

4. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 4 Today’s Student Body Grown up with computers in homes and schools May have weaker mathematical and logical skills (National Science Board, 2000) Demographics: Declining number of women - 37% to fewer than 28% (Mayfield, 2000) Few underrepresented minorities

5. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 5 Multiple Perspectives Cognitive Based upon course programming assignments Not choosing what I think will be problematic ahead of time Social Course climate Resources Pedagogical Links between cognitive problems and social atmosphere and the pedagogical approach

6. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 6 Method Conceptual change approach with qualitative methods Case studies of 10 CS 1 students Participants Possible Computer Science majors No prior programming experience Data collection Weekly interviews Observations of class and class-related activities Newsgroup and email messages

7. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 7 Proposed Data Analysis Question #1 Do students find learning to program hard? Look at students’ programs for problems Look through interview transcripts for places where students say they are confused, they don’t understand, or they contradict themselves Look at the newsgroup postings

8. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 8 Proposed Data Analysis Question #2 What is hard about it? Questions asked in class Problems on exams Questions posted to the newsgroup Conversations with students, instructors, TAs, consultants

9. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 9 Proposed Data Analysis Question #3 What resources do students draw upon to help understand the material? Observations in on-campus laboratory Interviews with students Newsgroup postings

10. Lori Postner - University of Washington SIGCSE Doctoral Consortium 2002 10 Preliminary Findings Is learning to program hard? Not hard but rather challenging, frustrating, and time consuming What is hard about it? Conceptual Draw upon prior knowledge in troublesome ways Control flow Social Getting help Scared to talk to each other Pedagogical Large assignments Receive lecture slides Funded by the Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology