Qualifying Novices' Conceptual Resources in Computer Science I

Abstract

Learning can be conceptualized as change in long-term memory, but this change is mediated by the concepts, strategies, and values learners bring into the classroom. This thesis describes an ontology of the prior knowledge novice programmers enter introductory computing courses with and how such knowledge mediates their programming practice. To generate this ontology, I conducted 1:1 clinical interviews with 6 novice programmers recruited from introductory programming courses at Middle Tennessee State University. During the interviews, I presented novices with a series of programming problems and asked them to think aloud as they reasoned about them. I found that novice programmers entered their programming courses with manifold conceptions of the assignment operator and conceptual resources about knowledge of programs. This thesis clarifies the difficulties novices have when learning to program, contributes a computing-specific description of novices’ knowledge, and provides groundwork on which future design-based research may be conducted.