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A qualitative think-aloud study of novice programmers' code writing strategies

Authors:

Jacqueline Whalley,

Nadia KastoAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '14: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education

Pages 279 - 284

https://doi.org/10.1145/2591708.2591762

Published: 21 June 2014 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents part of a larger long term study into the cognitive aspects of the early stages of learning to write computer programs Tasks designed to trigger learning events were used to provide the opportunity to observe student learning, in terms of the development and modification of cognitive structures or schemata, during think aloud sessions. A narrative analysis of six students' attempts to solve these tasks is presented. The students' progression in learning and attitudinal approaches to learning is examined and provides some insight into the cognitive processes involved in learning computer programming.

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Cited By

Schantong BSiegmund NSiegmund J(2025)Toward a theory on programmer’s block inspired by writer’s blockEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10542-930:1Online publication date: 1-Feb-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-024-10542-9
Imbulpitiya AWhalley JSenapathi M(2024)A Qualitative Study of Novice Experiences with Database NormalisationProceedings of the 26th Australasian Computing Education Conference10.1145/3636243.3636254(94-103)Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636243.3636254
Hebbar SHarini SRaman AKumar V(2024)Refute Questions for Concrete, Cluttered SpecificationsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3632621.3671427(539-540)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632621.3671427
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Index Terms

A qualitative think-aloud study of novice programmers' code writing strategies
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

ITiCSE '14: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education

June 2014

378 pages

ISBN:9781450328333

DOI:10.1145/2591708

Conference Chairs:
Åsa Cajander
Uppsala University, Sweden
,
Mats Daniels
Uppsala University, Sweden
,
Program Chairs:
Tony Clear
Auckland University of Technology, NZ
,
Arnold Pears
Uppsala University, Sweden

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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Bilkent University: Bilkent University
SIGCSE: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 21 June 2014

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Bilkent University
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ITICSE '14: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Conference 2014

June 21 - 25, 2014

Uppsala, Sweden

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ITiCSE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 36 of 164 submissions, 22%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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Cited By

Schantong BSiegmund NSiegmund J(2025)Toward a theory on programmer’s block inspired by writer’s blockEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-024-10542-930:1Online publication date: 1-Feb-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-024-10542-9
Imbulpitiya AWhalley JSenapathi M(2024)A Qualitative Study of Novice Experiences with Database NormalisationProceedings of the 26th Australasian Computing Education Conference10.1145/3636243.3636254(94-103)Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3636243.3636254
Hebbar SHarini SRaman AKumar V(2024)Refute Questions for Concrete, Cluttered SpecificationsProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 210.1145/3632621.3671427(539-540)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632621.3671427
Prather JReeves BLeinonen JMacNeil SRandrianasolo ABecker BKimmel BWright JBriggs B(2024)The Widening Gap: The Benefits and Harms of Generative AI for Novice ProgrammersProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research - Volume 110.1145/3632620.3671116(469-486)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632620.3671116
Joseph ASarma SShelly Kumar V(2023)Bug-eecha 2.0: An Educational Game for CS1 Students and InstructorsProceedings of the 16th Annual ACM India Compute Conference10.1145/3627217.3627236(61-65)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3627217.3627236
Imbulpitiya AWhalley JSenapathi M(2023)Reflections on Conducting Online Think-AloudsACM Inroads10.1145/359691714:2(26-34)Online publication date: 19-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3596917
Weeda RSmetsers SBarendsen E(2023)Unraveling novices’ code composition difficultiesComputer Science Education10.1080/08993408.2023.216906734:3(414-441)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2023.2169067
Heinonen ALehtelä BHellas AFagerholm F(2023)Synthesizing research on programmers’ mental models of programs, tasks and concepts — A systematic literature reviewInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107300164(107300)Online publication date: Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107300
Alhejaili AWharrad HWindle R(2022)A Pilot Study Conducting Online Think Aloud Qualitative Method during Social Distancing: Benefits and ChallengesHealthcare10.3390/healthcare1009170010:9(1700)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10091700
Prasad SGreenman BNelson TWrenn JKrishnamurthi S(2022)Making Hay from Wheats: A Classsourcing Method to Identify MisconceptionsProceedings of the 22nd Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3564721.3564726(1-7)Online publication date: 17-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3564721.3564726
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