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'explain in plain english' questions revisited: data structures problems

Authors:

Malcolm Corney,

Sue Fitzgerald,

Raymond Lister,

Renee McCauley,

Laurie MurphyAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 591 - 596

https://doi.org/10.1145/2538862.2538911

Published: 05 March 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Recent studies have linked the ability of novice (CS1) programmers to read and explain code with their ability to write code. This study extends earlier work by asking CS2 students to explain object-oriented data structures problems that involve recursion. Results show a strong correlation between ability to explain code at an abstract level and performance on code writing and code reading test problems for these object-oriented data structures problems. The authors postulate that there is a common set of skills concerned with reasoning about programs that explains the correlation between writing code and explaining code. The authors suggest that an overly exclusive emphasis on code writing may be detrimental to learning to program. Non-code writing learning activities (e.g., reading and explaining code) are likely to improve student ability to reason about code and, by extension, improve student ability to write code. A judicious mix of code-writing and code-reading activities is recommended.

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Cited By

Feldman MAnderson C(2024)Non-Expert Programmers in the Generative AI FutureProceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work10.1145/3663384.3663393(1-19)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663384.3663393
Denny PSmith DFowler MPrather JBecker BLeinonen JMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)Explaining Code with a Purpose: An Integrated Approach for Developing Code Comprehension and Prompting SkillsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653587(283-289)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653587
Nguyen SBabe HZi YGuha AAnderson CFeldman M(2024)How Beginning Programmers and Code LLMs (Mis)read Each OtherProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642706(1-26)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642706
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Index Terms

'explain in plain english' questions revisited: data structures problems
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2014

800 pages

ISBN:9781450326056

DOI:10.1145/2538862

Conference Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
J.D. Dougherty, Haverford College
,
Kris Nagel
Georgia Gwinnett College
,
Program Chairs:
Adrienne Decker
Rochester Institute of Technology
,
Kurt Eiselt
University of British Columbia

Copyright © 2014 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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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 05 March 2014

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SIGCSE '14: The 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 5 - 8, 2014

Georgia, Atlanta, USA

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SIGCSE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 108 of 274 submissions, 39%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

Feldman MAnderson C(2024)Non-Expert Programmers in the Generative AI FutureProceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work10.1145/3663384.3663393(1-19)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663384.3663393
Denny PSmith DFowler MPrather JBecker BLeinonen JMonga MLonati VBarendsen ESheard JPaterson J(2024)Explaining Code with a Purpose: An Integrated Approach for Developing Code Comprehension and Prompting SkillsProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653587(283-289)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3649217.3653587
Nguyen SBabe HZi YGuha AAnderson CFeldman M(2024)How Beginning Programmers and Code LLMs (Mis)read Each OtherProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642706(1-26)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642706
Hijón-Neira RPizarro CFrench JParedes-Barragán PDuignan M(2023)Improving CS1 Programming Learning with Visual Execution EnvironmentsInformation10.3390/info1410057914:10(579)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/info14100579
Jacques L(2023)Teaching CS-101 at the Dawn of ChatGPTACM Inroads10.1145/359563414:2(40-46)Online publication date: 19-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3595634
Nzemeke JLaakso MMonga MSimon Sheard J(2023)From Misconceptions to Mastery: Addressing Novice Students' Misconceptions in Recursive Algorithm LearningProceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 210.1145/3587103.3594143(611-612)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3587103.3594143
Li THsu SFowler MZhang ZZilles CKarahalios K(2023)Am I Wrong, or Is the Autograder Wrong? Effects of AI Grading Mistakes on LearningProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3568813.3600124(159-176)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568813.3600124
Nzemeke J(2023)The Role of Working Memory Capacity in Recursive Problem-Solving: A Study on Novice ProgrammersProceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3568812.3603456(99-101)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568812.3603456
Kapoor AXie TKwan LGardner-Mccune CDoyle MStephenson BDorn BSoh LBattestilli L(2023)Logistics, Affordances, and Evaluation of Build ProgrammingProceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569756(179-185)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
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van der Werf VAivaloglou EHermans FSpecht M(2022)(How) Should Variables and Their Naming Be Taught in Novice Programming Education?Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3501709.3544288(53-54)Online publication date: 7-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501709.3544288
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