Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group

This is the Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Workshop of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG). This was the first PPIG to be held physically since 2019, following the two online-only PPIGs in 2020 and 2021, both during the Covid pandemic. It was also the first PPIG conference to be designed specifically for hybrid attendance. Reflecting the theme, it was hosted by Music Computing Lab at the Open University in Milton Keynes

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

Working Performatively with Interactive 3D Printing: An artistic practice utilising interactive programming for computational manufacturing and livecoding

This thesis explores the liminal space where personal computational art and design practices and mass-manufacturing technologies intersect. It focuses on what it could look and feel like to be a computationally-augmented, creative practitioner working with 3D printing in a more programmatic, interactive way. The major research contribution is the introduction of a future-looking practice of Interactive 3D Printing (I3DP).I3DP is articulated using the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations in terms of associated user activities and design trade-offs. Another contribution is the design, development, and analysis of a working I3DP system called LivePrinter. LivePrinter is evaluated through a series of qualitiative user studies and a personal computational art practice, including livecoding performances and 3D form-making

Working Performatively with Interactive 3D Printing: An artistic practice utilising interactive programming for computational manufacturing and livecoding

This thesis explores the liminal space where personal computational art and design practices and mass-manufacturing technologies intersect. It focuses on what it could look and feel like to be a computationally-augmented, creative practitioner working with 3D printing in a more programmatic, interactive way. The major research contribution is the introduction of a future-looking practice of Interactive 3D Printing (I3DP).I3DP is articulated using the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations in terms of associated user activities and design trade-offs. Another contribution is the design, development, and analysis of a working I3DP system called LivePrinter. LivePrinter is evaluated through a series of qualitiative user studies and a personal computational art practice, including livecoding performances and 3D form-making

Introducing Computational Thinking in K-12 Education: Historical, Epistemological, Pedagogical, Cognitive, and Affective Aspects

Introduction of scientific and cultural aspects of Computer Science (CS) (called "Computational Thinking" - CT) in K-12 education is fundamental. We focus on three crucial areas. 1. Historical, philosophical, and pedagogical aspects. What are the big ideas of CS we must teach? What are the historical and pedagogical contexts in which CT emerged, and why are relevant? What is the relationship between learning theories (e.g., constructivism) and teaching approaches (e.g., plugged and unplugged)? 2. Cognitive aspects. What is the sentiment of generalist teachers not trained to teach CS? What misconceptions do they hold about concepts like CT and "coding"? 3. Affective and motivational aspects. What is the impact of personal beliefs about intelligence (mindset) and about CS ability? What the role of teaching approaches? This research has been conducted both through historical and philosophical argumentation, and through quantitative and qualitative studies (both on nationwide samples and small significant ones), in particular through the lens of (often exaggerated) claims about transfer from CS to other skills. Four important claims are substantiated. 1. CS should be introduced in K-12 as a tool to understand and act in our digital world, and to use the power of computation for meaningful learning. CT is the conceptual sediment of that learning. We designed a curriculum proposal in this direction. 2. The expressions CT (useful to distantiate from digital literacy) and "coding" can cause misconceptions among teachers, who focus mainly on transfer to general thinking skills. Both disciplinary and pedagogical teacher training is hence needed. 3. Some plugged and unplugged teaching tools have intrinsic constructivist characteristics that can facilitate CS learning, as shown with proposed activities. 4. Growth mindset is not automatically fostered by CS, while not studying CS can foster fixed beliefs. Growth mindset can be fostered by creative computing, leveraging on its constructivist aspects

Being sound: FLOSS, flow and event in the composition and ensemble performance of free open computer music

This commentary describes my recent approach to writing compositions for the ensemble performance of computer music. Drawing on experimental music and improvisation, I contend that such music is best considered in terms of people’s situated and relational interplay. The compositional and performative question that permeates this thesis is ‘what can we do, in this time and space, with these tools available to us?’. As themes of equality and egalitarian access underpin this work throughout, I highlight my engagement with Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) ideology and community, reflecting on how this achieves my aims. I describe my writing of text score compositions, making use of the term bounded improvisation, whose purposeful requirements for indeterminate realisation extends most current computer-based performance practice. Though no single strand of this research is perhaps unusual by itself, such an assemblage as that outlined above (incorporating composition, computer coding and ensemble performance practice) is, when allied to an understanding of electronic and computer music praxis, currently an underdeveloped approach. Such an approach I have thus chosen to term free open computer music. I incorporate two further pre-existing conceptual formulations to present a framework for constructing, reflecting on, and developing my work in this field. Firstly flow or 'immersed experience' is useful to explicate difficult to capture aspects of instrumental engagement and ensemble performance. Secondly, this portfolio of scores aims to produce well-constructed situations, facilitating spaces of flow which contain within their environments the opportunity for an event to take place. I present the outcomes of my practice as place-forming tactics that catalyse something to do, but not what to do, in performative spaces such as those described above. Such intentions define my aims for composition. These theoretical concerns, together with an allied consideration of the underpinning themes highlighted above, is a useful framework for refection and evaluation of this work

On the real world practice of Behaviour Driven Development

Surveys of industry practice over the last decade suggest that Behaviour Driven Development is a popular Agile practice. For example, 19% of respondents to the 14th State of Agile annual survey reported using BDD, placing it in the top 13 practices reported. As well as potential benefits, the adoption of BDD necessarily involves an additional cost of writing and maintaining Gherkin features and scenarios, and (if used for acceptance testing,) the associated step functions. Yet there is a lack of published literature exploring how BDD is used in practice and the challenges experienced by real world software development efforts. This gap is significant because without understanding current real world practice, it is hard to identify opportunities to address and mitigate challenges. In order to address this research gap concerning the challenges of using BDD, this thesis reports on a research project which explored: (a) the challenges of applying agile and undertaking requirements engineering in a real world context; (b) the challenges of applying BDD specifically and (c) the application of BDD in open-source projects to understand challenges in this different context. For this purpose, we progressively conducted two case studies, two series of interviews, four iterations of action research, and an empirical study. The first case study was conducted in an avionics company to discover the challenges of using an agile process in a large scale safety critical project environment. Since requirements management was found to be one of the biggest challenges during the case study, we decided to investigate BDD because of its reputation for requirements management. The second case study was conducted in the company with an aim to discover the challenges of using BDD in real life. The case study was complemented with an empirical study of the practice of BDD in open source projects, taking a study sample from the GitHub open source collaboration site. As a result of this Ph.D research, we were able to discover: (i) challenges of using an agile process in a large scale safety-critical organisation, (ii) current state of BDD in practice, (iii) technical limitations of Gherkin (i.e., the language for writing requirements in BDD), (iv) challenges of using BDD in a real project, (v) bad smells in the Gherkin specifications of open source projects on GitHub. We also presented a brief comparison between the theoretical description of BDD and BDD in practice. This research, therefore, presents the results of lessons learned from BDD in practice, and serves as a guide for software practitioners planning on using BDD in their projects