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Student understanding of object-oriented programming as expressed in concept maps

Authors:

Jonas Boustedt,

Robert McCartney,

Jan Erik Moström,

Carol ZanderAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 40, Issue 1

Pages 332 - 336

https://doi.org/10.1145/1352322.1352251

Published: 12 March 2008 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of an experiment in which we sought to elicit students' understanding of object-oriented (OO) concepts using concept maps. Our analysis confirmed earlier research indicating that students do not have a firm grasp on the distinction between "class" and "instance." Unlike earlier research, we found that our students generally connect classes with both data and behavior. Students rarely included any mention of the hardware/software context of programs, their users, or their real-world domains. Students do mention inheritance, but not encapsulation or abstraction. And the picture they draw of OO is a static one: we found nothing that could be construed as referring to interaction among objects in a program. We then discuss the implications for teaching introductory OO programming.

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Cited By

Flores PRivas ITorres J(2023)Difficulties in Object-Oriented Design and its relationship with Abstraction: A Systematic Review of LiteratureProceedings of the 4th European Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3651640.3651643(1-13)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651640.3651643
Flores PAlvarez MTorres J(2022)Identifying Difficulties of Software Modeling Through Class Diagrams: A Long-Term Comparative AnalysisIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.315729010(28895-28910)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3157290
Shmallo RRagonis N(2021)Understanding the “this” reference in object oriented programming: Misconceptions, conceptions, and teaching recommendationsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-020-10265-626:1(733-762)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10639-020-10265-6
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Student understanding of object-oriented programming as expressed in concept maps
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages

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Student understanding of object-oriented programming as expressed in concept maps
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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 40, Issue 1

SIGCSE 08

March 2008

549 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1352322

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '08: Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2008
606 pages
ISBN:9781595937995
DOI:10.1145/1352135
General Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
Haverford College
,
Susan Rodger
Duke University
,
Program Chairs:
Sue Fitzgerald
Metropolitan State University
,
Mark Guzdial
Georgia Institute of Technology

Copyright © 2008 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: 12 March 2008

Published in SIGCSE Volume 40, Issue 1

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Cited By

Flores PRivas ITorres J(2023)Difficulties in Object-Oriented Design and its relationship with Abstraction: A Systematic Review of LiteratureProceedings of the 4th European Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3651640.3651643(1-13)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651640.3651643
Flores PAlvarez MTorres J(2022)Identifying Difficulties of Software Modeling Through Class Diagrams: A Long-Term Comparative AnalysisIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.315729010(28895-28910)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3157290
Shmallo RRagonis N(2021)Understanding the “this” reference in object oriented programming: Misconceptions, conceptions, and teaching recommendationsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-020-10265-626:1(733-762)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10639-020-10265-6
Wagner SKok KPriemer B(2020)Measuring Characteristics of Explanations with Element MapsEducation Sciences10.3390/educsci1002003610:2(36)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2020
https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10020036
Turner SPérez-Quiñones MEdwards S(2018)Peer Review in CS2ACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/315271518:3(1-37)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3152715
Noa RRonit S(2018)A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Students’ Perceptions and Misconceptions Regards the Current Object “this”Informatics in Schools. Fundamentals of Computer Science and Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_7(84-100)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_7
Moskal AGasson JParsons DTenenberg JChinn DSheard JMalmi LTenenberg JMalmi L(2017)The 'Art' of ProgrammingProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3105726.3106170(39-46)Online publication date: 14-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3105726.3106170
Zehetmeier DBruggemann-Klein ABottcher AThurner V(2016)A concept for interventions that address typical error classes in programming education2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)10.1109/EDUCON.2016.7474605(545-554)Online publication date: Apr-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2016.7474605
Xinogalos S(2015)Object-Oriented Design and ProgrammingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/270051915:3(1-21)Online publication date: 28-Jul-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2700519
Larraza-Mendiluze EGaray-Vitoria NLaakso MSimon (2013)Use of concept maps to analyze students' understanding of the I/O subsystemProceedings of the 13th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/2526968.2526976(67-76)Online publication date: 14-Nov-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2526968.2526976
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