Linda Mannila

A survey of literature on the teaching of introductory programming

Three decades of active research on the teaching of introductory programming has had limited effect on classroom practice. Although relevant research exists across several disciplines including education and cognitive science, disciplinary differences have made this material inaccessible to many computing educators. Furthermore, computer science instructors have not had access to a comprehensive survey of research in this area. This paper collects and classifies this literature, identifies important work and mediates it to computing educators and professional bodies. We identify research that gives well-supported advice to computing academics teaching introductory programming. Limitations and areas of incomplete coverage of existing research efforts are also identified. The analysis applies publication and research quality metrics developed by a previous ITiCSE working group [74].

What about a Simple Language? Analyzing the Difficulties in Learning to Program.

In this paper, we present the results from a two-part study. We analyze 60 programs written by novice programmers aged 16 – 19 after their first programming course, in either Java or Python. The aim is to find difficulties independent of the language used, and such originating from the language. Second, we analyze the transition from a “simple” language to a more “advanced” one, by following up on eight students, who learned programming in Python before moving on to Java. Our results suggest that a simple language gives rise to fewer syntax errors as well as logic errors. The qualitative part of our study did not reveal any disadvantages from having learned to program in a simple language when moving on to a more complex one. This suggests that not only can a simple language be used when introducing programming as a general skill, but also when providing basic skills to future professionals in the field.

An objective comparison of languages for teaching introductory programming

The question of which language to use in introductory programming has been cause for protracted debate, often based on emotive opinions. Several studies on the benefits of individual languages or comparisons between two languages have been conducted, but there is still a lack of objective data used to inform these comparisons. This paper presents a list of criteria based on design decisions used by prominent teaching-language creators. The criteria, once justified, are then used to compare eleven languages which are currently used in introductory programming courses. Recommendations are made on how these criteria can be used or adapted for different situations.

Computer science and IT teachers' conceptions of successful and unsuccessful teaching: A phenomenographic study

In this paper we present the results of a phenomenographic study revealing the conceptions of successful and unsuccessful teaching among information and communication technology, information technology (IT), and computer science academics. We examine ways in which the understandings of IT teachers are similar to or differ from other teachers in domain-specific ways. Our categorizations of successful teaching (feeling successful, good delivery, developing student thinking) correspond to similar findings in the literature. However, our categorizations of unsuccessful teaching are more revealing. Undergraduate IT teachers understand unsuccessful teaching in five ways: teacher lacks skills, teacher lacks organizational support, students do not take responsibility, domain complexity, and students do not demonstrate understanding. These conceptualizations do not directly correspond to the ways in which teachers perceive successful teaching, revealing a gap between idealized notions of teaching and actual teaching in practice. Of specific interest, lack of administrative support in the form of insufficient funding, overloaded lecture hours, and inexperienced teaching assistants emerged as barriers to effective teaching. Equally important, difficulties in dealing with abstraction and complexity specific to IT disciplines have consequences for the way in which IT should be taught. These phenomenographic categories of description are intended to serve as a framework for IT teachers to engage in a process of self-reflection leading to improved teaching practices. We present ways in which the understandings of successful and unsuccessful teaching can aid in this process.

A review of models for introducing computational thinking, computer science and computing in K-12 education

Computer science is becoming ever increasingly important to our society. Computer science content has, however, not traditionally been considered a natural part of curricula for primary and secondary education. Computer science has traditionally been primarily a university level discipline and there are no widely accepted general standards for what computer science at K-12 level entails. Also, as the interest in this area is rather new, the amount of research conducted in the field is still limited. In this paper we review how 10 different countries have approached introducing computer science into their K-12 education. The countries are Australia, England, Estonia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Poland and USA. The studied countries either emphasize digital competencies together with programming or the broader subject of computer science or computing. Computational thinking is rarely mentioned explicitly, but the ideas are often included in some form. The most common model is to make computer science content compulsory in primary school and elective in secondary school. A few countries have made it compulsory in both, while some countries have only introduced it in secondary school.

A computing perspective on the Bologna process

The Bologna process is intended to culminate in the formation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010. Its aim is to facilitate the mobility of people, the transparency and recognition of qualifications, quality and development of a European dimension to higher education, and the attractiveness of European institutions for third country students.This paper provides an overview of progress towards implementation in EHEA member states using official documents and interview data from faculty teaching computing in countries represented at the ITiCSE 2006 meeting. The key areas where the structures established by the Bologna process are problematic for computing education arise from the rapidly changing nature of the curriculum. It seems that the maturity and capability criteria, as well as the manner in which learning outcomes are specified, being developed within the Bologna process are too general. This endangers the properties of transparency and mobility that the process intends to promote.Progression and prerequisite knowledge in computing degrees can be very specific. For instance, generic learning outcomes for an introductory programming course quite rightly will not specify the programming language, or languages, used to implement algorithms. However, suppose a student intends to study an advanced algorithms and data structures course in which Java is the language of implementation which has an introductory course in programming as a prerequisite. If the introductory course language was Standard ML it is not clear that the prerequisite course actually provides the student with a suitable background. These types of complexities are typical of computing, where early subject curricula are not standardised nationally or internationally, and create significant hurdles for realising the Bologna objectives.

Reasoning on Children's Cognitive Skills in an Informatics Contest: Findings and Discoveries from Finland, Lithuania, and Sweden

In this paper, we present the results from a multi-national study of students’ results in the international IT contest ”Bebras”. Bebras provides motivating and game-like tasks in the format of multiple-choice questions and interactive problems to students in grades 2–12. Our study focuses on the results of nearly 8 000 students aged 10–13 in Finland (n=852), Sweden (n=201) and Lithuania (n=7 022), using gender, task and country as the underlying variables. In addition to presenting the overall results of the three student groups, we also analyse a subset of tasks in common according to Bloom’s taxonomy and put forward detailed results for these tasks with regard to gender and country. The results show that there is no difference in performance between boys and girls in this age group. Our findings also indicate that there was a slight mismatch between the difficulty level of the tasks used in the contest and students’ actual abilities; finding more efficient and trustworthy ways of evaluating difficulty levels upfront and choosing a suitable task set is hence important for upcoming contests.

Computing at School in Sweden – Experiences from Introducing Computer Science within Existing Subjects

Computing is no longer considered a subject area only relevant for a narrow group of professionals, but rather as a vital part of general education that should be available to all children and youth. Since making changes to national curricula takes time, people are trying to find other ways of introducing children and youth to computing. In Sweden, several current initiatives by researchers and teachers aim at finding ways of working with computing within the current curriculum. In this paper we present case studies based on a selection of these initiatives from four major regions in Sweden and based on these case studies we present our ideas for how to move forward on introducing computational thinking on a larger scale in Swedish education.

Educating Computer Science Educators Online - A Racket MOOC for Elementary Math Teachers of Finland

Many countries all over the world are in the process of introducing programming into their K-12 curricula. New Finnish Curriculum includes programming mentioned especially in accordance with mathematics and crafts. Consequently, Finland needs to train teachers to teach programming at elementary school level. In this paper, we describe how elementary math teachers were educated online to teach programming using the Racket programming language. The aim of the course was to increase both content knowledge (CK) and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). By analyzing the course feedback, questionnaires and exercise data, we present the teachers’ views on the course and effects on their professional development (TPD). Finally, we describe development ideas for future online courses.

Makerspaces across Settings: Didactic Design for Programming in Formal and Informal Teacher Education in the Nordic Countries.

Abstract For education to provide knowledge reflecting our current and future society, many countries are revising their curricula, including a vivid discussion on digital competence, programming and computational thinking. This article builds an understanding of the maker movement in relation to education in programming, by demonstrating challenges and possibilities in the interface between Makerspaces and teacher education. Three different Nordic initiatives are presented and their designs for learning are analysed. The article illustrates how Makerspaces and teacher education can be transformed by each other; how Makerspaces can be used in programming activities and what challenges and possibilities emerge in the meeting between the two. The results highlight a core aspect of the maker movement: authenticity. Designs for learning have different levels of authenticity, but in all cases authenticity has been a positive factor. These hands-on learning environments are designed to foster collaboration, share ideas and innovation with people from different backgrounds to transform and form multimodal representations together. In the interface between the formal and informal a potential for inclusion and creation of spaces that reach individuals from different backgrounds is found. Mobile learning is a phenomenon that the making movement together with teacher education can make use of, at for example practice schools, university campuses, mobile Makerspaces or “open-door”-approaches. In the digital environment learning is distributed, but collaboration between formal and informal education is so far complicated to establish, meaning that the academy needs to find more creative and flexible ways of making connections outside the academy.