Levering object-oriented knowledge for service-oriented proficiency

As more and more enterprise systems endeavour to interconnect seamlessly by using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) a number of challenges are beginning to surface as a result of the differences in understanding between object-orientated programming (OOP) and service-orientation in technical development teams. These differences are thus explored to determine the potential of subsidising gaps in knowledge through relational learning in order to better prepare development environments for service migration. It emerges that the principles of service-oriented programming can be used within OOP by selectively identifying the existing knowledge found within object-orientation and traditional programming methodologies. The benefit of this approach proposes to lever the expertise of object-oriented developers so as to build service-ready computer software and encourage the seamlessness of SOA

An investigation of students' knowledge, skills and strategies during problem solving in objectoriented programming

The object-oriented paradigm is widely advocated and has been used in South African universities since the late 1990s. Object-oriented computer programming is based on the object-oriented paradigm where objects are the building blocks that combine data and methods in the same entity. Students' performance in object-oriented programming (OOP) is a matter of concern. In many cases they lack the ability to apply various supportive techniques in the process of programming. Efficient knowledge, skills and strategies are required during problem solving to enhance the programming process. It is often assumed that students implicitly and independently master these high-level knowledge, skills and strategies, and that teaching should focus on programming content and coding structures only. However, to be successful in the complex domain of OOP, explicit learning of both programming and supportive cognitive techniques is required. The objective of this study was to identify cognitive, metacognitive and problem-solving knowledge, skills and strategies used by successful and unsuccessful programmers in OOP. These activities were identified and evaluated in an empirical research study. A mixed research design was used, where both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to analyse participants' data. As a qualitative research practice, grounded theory was applied to guide the systematic collection of data and to generate theory. The findings suggest that successful programmers applied significantly more cognitive-, metacognitive- and problem-solving knowledge, skills and strategies, also using a greater variety, than the unsuccessful programmers. Since programming is complex, we propose a learning repertoire based on the approaches of successful programmers, to serve as an integrated framework to support novices in learning OOP. Various techniques should be used during problem solving and programming to meaningfully construct, explicitly reflect on, and critically select appropriate knowledge, skills and strategies so as to better understand, design, code and test programs. Some examples of teaching practices are also outlined as application of the findings of the study.Mathematical SciencesPhD. (Nathematics, Science and Tecnical Education

Usability issues and design principles for visual programming languages

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Despite two decades of empirical studies focusing on programmers and the problems with programming, usability of textual programming languages is still hard to achieve. Its younger relation, visual programming languages (VPLs) also share the same problem of poor usability. This research explores and investigates the usability issues relating to VPLs in order to suggest a set of design principles that emphasise usability. The approach adopted focuses on issues arising from the interaction and communication between the human (programmers), the computer (user interface), and the program. Being exploratory in nature, this PhD reviews the literature as a starting point for stimulating and developing research questions and hypotheses that experimental studies were conducted to investigate. However, the literature alone cannot provide a fully comprehensive list of possible usability problems in VPLs so that design principles can be confidently recommended. A commercial VPL was, therefore, holistically evaluated and a comprehensive list of usability problems was obtained from the research. Six empirical studies employing both quantitative and qualitative methodology were undertaken as dictated by the nature of the research. Five of these were controlled experiments and one was qualitative-naturalistic. The experiments studied the effect of a programming paradigm and of representation of program flow on novices' performances. The results indicated superiority of control-flow programs in relation to data-flow programs; a control-flow preference among novices; and in addition that directional representation does not affect performance while traversal direction does - due to cognitive demands imposed upon programmers. Results of the qualitative study included a list of 145 usability problems and these were further categorised into ten problem areas. These findings were integrated with other analytical work based upon the review of the literature in a structured fashion to form a checklist and a set of design principles for VPLs that are empirically grounded and evaluated against existing research in the literature. Furthermore, an extended framework for Cognitive Dimensions of Notations is also discussed and proposed as an evaluation method for diagrammatic VPLs on the basis of the qualitative study. The above consists of the major findings and deliverables of this research. Nevertheless, there are several other findings identified on the basis of the substantial amount of data obtained in the series of experiments carried out, which have made a novel contribution to knowledge in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology of Programming, and Visual Programming Languages

Task-related models for teaching and assessing iteration learning in high school

A number of studies report about students’ difficulties with basic flow-control constructs, and specifically with iteration. Although such issues are less explored in the context of pre-tertiary education, this seems to be especially the case for high-school programming learning, where the difficulties concern both the “mechanical” features of the notional machine as well as the logical aspects connected with the constructs, ranging from the implications of loop conditions to a more abstract grasp of the underlying algorithms. For these reasons, the aim of this work is to: i) identifying methodological tools to enhance a comprehensive understanding of the iteration constructs, ii) suggest strategies to teach iterations. We interviewed 20 experienced upper secondary teachers of introductory programming in different kinds of schools. The interviews were mainly aimed at ascertaining teachers’ beliefs about major sources of issues for basic programming concepts and their approach to the teaching and learning of iteration constructs. Once teachers’ perception of students’ difficulties have been identified, we have submitted, to a sample of 164 students, a survey which included both questions on their subjective perception of difficulty and simple tasks probing their understanding of iteration. Data collected from teachers and students confirm that iteration is a central programming concept and indicate that the treatment of conditions and nested constructs are major sources of students’ difficulties with iteration. The interviews allowed us to identify a list of problems that are typically presented by teachers to explain the iterations. Hence, a catalogue of significant program examples has been built to support students’ learning, tasks with characteristics different from those typically presented in class. Based on the outcome of previous steps, a survey to collect related information and good practices from a larger sample of teachers has been designed. Data collected have been analysed distinguishing an orientation towards more conceptual objectives, and one towards more practical objectives. Furthermore, regarding evaluation, a orientation focused on process-based assessment and another on product-based assessment. Finally, based on the outcome of previous students’ survey and drawing from the proposed examples catalogue, we have designed and submitted a new students’ survey, composed of a set of small tasks, or tasklets, to investigate in more depth on high-school students’ understanding of iteration in terms of code reading abilities. The chosen tasklets covered the different topics: technical program feature, correlation between tracing effort and abstraction, the role of flow-charts, students’ perception of self-confidence concerning high-level thinking skills.A number of studies report about students’ difficulties with basic flow-control constructs, and specifically with iteration. Although such issues are less explored in the context of pre-tertiary education, this seems to be especially the case for high-school programming learning, where the difficulties concern both the “mechanical” features of the notional machine as well as the logical aspects connected with the constructs, ranging from the implications of loop conditions to a more abstract grasp of the underlying algorithms. For these reasons, the aim of this work is to: i) identifying methodological tools to enhance a comprehensive understanding of the iteration constructs, ii) suggest strategies to teach iterations. We interviewed 20 experienced upper secondary teachers of introductory programming in different kinds of schools. The interviews were mainly aimed at ascertaining teachers’ beliefs about major sources of issues for basic programming concepts and their approach to the teaching and learning of iteration constructs. Once teachers’ perception of students’ difficulties have been identified, we have submitted, to a sample of 164 students, a survey which included both questions on their subjective perception of difficulty and simple tasks probing their understanding of iteration. Data collected from teachers and students confirm that iteration is a central programming concept and indicate that the treatment of conditions and nested constructs are major sources of students’ difficulties with iteration. The interviews allowed us to identify a list of problems that are typically presented by teachers to explain the iterations. Hence, a catalogue of significant program examples has been built to support students’ learning, tasks with characteristics different from those typically presented in class. Based on the outcome of previous steps, a survey to collect related information and good practices from a larger sample of teachers has been designed. Data collected have been analysed distinguishing an orientation towards more conceptual objectives, and one towards more practical objectives. Furthermore, regarding evaluation, a orientation focused on process-based assessment and another on product-based assessment. Finally, based on the outcome of previous students’ survey and drawing from the proposed examples catalogue, we have designed and submitted a new students’ survey, composed of a set of small tasks, or tasklets, to investigate in more depth on high-school students’ understanding of iteration in terms of code reading abilities. The chosen tasklets covered the different topics: technical program feature, correlation between tracing effort and abstraction, the role of flow-charts, students’ perception of self-confidence concerning high-level thinking skills

Does outside-in teaching improve the learning of object-oriented programming?

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is widely used in the software industry and university introductory courses today. Following the structure of most textbooks, such courses frequently are organised starting with the concepts of imperative and structured programming and only later introducing OOP. An alternative approach is to begin directly with OOP following the Outside-In teaching method as proposed by Meyer. Empirical results for the effects of Outside-In teaching on students and lecturers are sparse, however. We describe the conceptual design and empirical evaluation of two OOP introductory courses from different universities based on Outside-In teaching. The evaluation results are compared to those from a third course serving as the control group, which was taught OOP the "traditional" way. We evaluate the initial motivation and knowledge of the participants and the learning outcomes. In addition, we analyse results of the end- term exams and qualitatively analyse the results of interviews with the lecturers and tutors. Regarding the learning outcomes, the results show no signif- icant differences between the Outside-In and the “traditional” teaching method. In general, students found it harder to solve and implement algorithmic problems than to understand object oriented (OO) concepts. Students taught OOP by the Outside-In method, however, were less afraid that they would not pass the exam at the end of term and understood the OO paradigm more quickly. Therefore, the Outside-In method is no silver bullet for teaching OOP regarding the learning outcomes but has positive effects on motivation and interest

Impact Of A Visual Programming Experience On The Attitude Toward Programming Of Introductory Undergraduate Students

Traditionally, textual tools have been utilized to teach basic programming languages and paradigms. Research has shown that students tend to be visual learners. Using flowcharts, students can quickly understand the logic of their programs and visualize the flow of commands in the algorithm. Moreover, applying programming to physical systems through the use of a microcontroller to facilitate this type of learning can spark an interest in students to advance their programming knowledge to create novel applications. This study examined if freshmen college students\u27 attitudes towards programming changed after completing a graphical programming lesson. Various attributes about students\u27 attitudes were examined including confidence, interest, stereotypes, and their belief in the usefulness of acquiring programming skills. The study found that there were no statistically significant differences in attitudes either immediately following the session or after a period of four weeks

A study of novice programmer performance and programming pedagogy.

Identifying and mitigating the difficulties experienced by novice programmers is an active area of research that has embraced a number of research areas. The aim of this research was to perform a holistic study into the causes of poor performance in novice programmers and to develop teaching approaches to mitigate them. A grounded action methodology was adopted to enable the primary concepts of programming cognitive psychology and their relationships to be established, in a systematic and formal manner. To further investigate novice programmer behaviour, two sub-studies were conducted into programming performance and ability. The first sub-study was a novel application of the FP-Tree algorithm to determine if novice programmers demonstrated predictable patterns of behaviour. This was the first study to data mine programming behavioural characteristics rather than the learner’s background information such as age and gender. Using the algorithm, patterns of behaviour were generated and associated with the students’ ability. No patterns of behaviour were identified and it was not possible to predict student results using this method. This suggests that novice programmers demonstrate no set patterns of programming behaviour that can be used determine their ability, although problem solving was found to be an important characteristic. Therefore, there was no evidence that performance could be improved by adopting pedagogies to promote simple changes in programming behaviour beyond the provision of specific problem solving instruction. A second sub-study was conducted using Raven’s Matrices which determined that cognitive psychology, specifically working memory, played an important role in novice programmer ability. The implication was that programming pedagogies must take into consideration the cognitive psychology of programming and the cognitive load imposed on learners. Abstracted Construct Instruction was developed based on these findings and forms a new pedagogy for teaching programming that promotes the recall of abstract patterns while reducing the cognitive demands associated with developing code. Cognitive load is determined by the student’s ability to ignore irrelevant surface features of the written problem and to cross-reference between the problem domain and their mental program model. The former is dealt with by producing tersely written exercises to eliminate distractors, while for the latter the teaching of problem solving should be delayed until the student’s program model is formed. While this does delay the development of problem solving skills, the problem solving abilities of students taught using this pedagogy were found to be comparable with students taught using a more traditional approach. Furthermore, monitoring students’ understanding of these patterns enabled micromanagement of the learning process, and hence explanations were provided for novice behaviour such as difficulties using arrays, inert knowledge and “code thrashing”. For teaching more complex problem solving, scaffolding of practice was investigated through a program framework that could be developed in stages by the students. However, personalising the level of scaffolding required was complicated and found to be difficult to achieve in practice. In both cases, these new teaching approaches evolved as part of a grounded theory study and a clear progression of teaching practice was demonstrated with appropriate evaluation at each stage in accordance with action researc

Proceedings of the Second Program Visualization Workshop, 2002

The Program Visualization Workshops aim to bring together researchers who design and construct program visualizations and, above all, educators who use and evaluate visualizations in their teaching. The first workshop took place in July 2000 at Porvoo, Finland. The second workshop was held in cooperation with ACM SIGCSE and took place at HornstrupCentret, Denmark in June 2002, immediately following the ITiCSE 2002 Conference in Aarhus, Denmark