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Transformative and troublesome? Students’ and professional programmers’ perspectives on difficult concepts in programming
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 15:54 authored by Lucy Yeomans, Steffan Zschaler, Kelly CoateProgramming skills are an increasingly desirable asset for higher education students across disciplines; however, learning to program continues to be difficult to master for many students. The heterogeneity of student cohorts in most computer science courses makes it challenging to isolate the concepts within programming that are particularly hard for all students to understand (i.e., 'threshold concepts'). As a result, there is a lack of consensus over the threshold concepts that are relevant to those learning programming. This paper draws on a qualitative study using focus groups with undergraduates and professional software developers to identify potential threshold concepts in programming. Data from the focus groups were thematically coded and analyzed using a theoretical framework based on established criteria for threshold concepts. In particular, we focused on concepts that were both troublesome and transformative and included other characteristics such as participants' partiality of understanding. Six potential threshold concepts were identified in the majority of the focus groups, including abstract classes, data structures and designing objects. Further analysis of the data identified additional concepts that may hinder rather than help the learning of these threshold concepts, which we have called 'accidental complexities'.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
ACM Transactions on Computing EducationISSN
1946-6226Publisher
Association for Computing MachineryExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
19Page range
23 1-27Department affiliated with
- Education Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-11-19First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-11-19First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-11-15Usage metrics
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