Program Comprehension: Identifying Learning Trajectories for Novice Programmers

This working group asserts that Program Comprehension (PC) plays a critical part in the writing process. For example, this abstract is written from a basic draft that we have edited and revised until it clearly presents our idea. Similarly, a program is written in an incremental manner, with each step being tested, debugged and extended until the program achieves its goal. Novice programmers should develop their program comprehen- sion as they learn to code, so that they are able to read and reason about code while they are writing it. To foster such competencies our group has identified two main goals: (1) to collect and define learning activities that explicitly cover key components of program comprehension and (2) to define possible learning trajectories that will guide teachers using those learning activities in their CS0/CS1 or K-12 courses. [...

Characterizing novice difficulties in program composition and aligning tasks for formative assessment

This study reports on an in-depth research into difficulties endured throughout disparate stages of students’ programming development, pursue a practical method to determine a student’s development stage, and propose specific interventions to remediate these difficulties tuned to each stage. The perceived difficulties which novice programmers endure during code composition, combining multi-faceted data from observations to students’ perceptions via interviews, think aloud, task ranking, and task rating were collected in a previous study. These have been anonymized and are publicly available in the DANS EASY archive: https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-xnn-x5p3. This data was further analyzed for performance (correctness, completeness, SOLO, Neo-Piagetian stages) as well as construct (combinations) used. This data set includes the new data collected from the second analysis of the data from the previous study, as well as (R) scripts used for quantitative analysis

Unraveling difficulties in code composition tasks

This study reports on an in-depth research into the perceived difficulties which novice programmers endure during code composition, combining multi-faceted data from observations to students’ perceptions via interviews, think aloud, task ranking, and task rating. In addition to analysis of the above, The students solutions were analyzed for performance (correctness, completeness, SOLO, Neo-Piagetian stages) as well as construct (combinations) used. The data set includes transciptions of all the interviews, the data collected from task rating and ranking, and students solutions as well as the analysis of this data

Unraveling difficulties in code composition tasks

This study reports on an in-depth research into the perceived difficulties which novice programmers endure during code composition, combining multi-faceted data from observations to students’ perceptions via interviews, think aloud, task ranking, and task rating. In addition to analysis of the above, The students solutions were analyzed for performance (correctness, completeness, SOLO, Neo-Piagetian stages) as well as construct (combinations) used. The data set includes transciptions of all the interviews, the data collected from task rating and ranking, and students solutions as well as the analysis of this data

Unraveling difficulties in code composition tasks

This study reports on an in-depth research into the perceived difficulties which novice programmers endure during code composition, combining multi-faceted data from observations to students’ perceptions via interviews, think aloud, task ranking, and task rating. In addition to analysis of the above, The students solutions were analyzed for performance (correctness, completeness, SOLO, Neo-Piagetian stages) as well as construct (combinations) used. The data set includes transciptions of all the interviews, the data collected from task rating and ranking, and students solutions as well as the analysis of this data

The productivity and response to inorganic fertilisers of species-rich wetland hay meadows on the Somerset moors: the effect of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on herbage production

The effects of fertilizer nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) on herbage production were investigated in herb-rich hay meadows in Somerset, UK. Swards were cut after 1 July each year, followed by one or two aftermath cuts. Dry-matter (DM) yield at cutting, metabolizable energy (ME) production and recovery of N, P and K were measured over 4 years. Total annual DM production increased from 4.7 t ha-1 without fertilizers to 10.5 t ha-1 with 200 kg N, 75 kg P and 200 kg K ha-1 per year, and ME output from 38.8 GJ ha-1 to 92.5 GJ ha-1. Applying moderate replacement rates of P and K without N increased annual DM and N yields by 43% and 36% respectively, but N response was modest unless high rates of P and K were used. Annual ME output and recovery of N, P and K were all significantly increased by taking an additional, earlier cut for silage, even though DM yield was unaffected. The results suggest that potential output of these meadows is similar to that of a wide range of less diverse permanent pastures. Data from this and a concurrent experiment will help to estimate the financial implications of fertilizer and cutting date restrictions within Sites of Special Scientific Interest and the wider Environmentally Sensitive Areas