Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning

Michelle Ichinco; Caitlin Kelleher

doi:10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886

Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning

Michelle Ichinco
, Caitlin Kelleher

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Though support for learning computing in schools is growing, many children still begin learning to program without formal support in open-ended programming environments. While researchers have evaluated the final code of these types of projects, we know little about how users' behaviors and usage of support tools relate to understanding. We ran a study where participants had open-ended programming time with access to one of two support tools: suggestions or tutorials. Participants then completed four tasks which required understanding of the suggestion or tutorial content. We did not find an effect of suggestions compared to tutorials on knowledge application, but we did find that many participants who performed better tended to explore more of the interface, code behaviors, and support tools. Our results suggest that future tools for encouraging learning during open-ended programming should likely focus on supporting users who tend to explore less on their own.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019
Editors	Justin Smith, Christopher A. Bogart, Judith Good, Scott D. Fleming
Publisher	IEEE Computer Society
Pages	45-53
Number of pages	9
ISBN (Electronic)	9781728108100
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886
State	Published - Oct 2019
Event	2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019 - Memphis, United States Duration: Oct 14 2019 → Oct 18 2019

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC
Volume	2019-October
ISSN (Print)	1943-6092
ISSN (Electronic)	1943-6106

Conference

Conference	2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019
Country/Territory	United States
City	Memphis
Period	10/14/19 → 10/18/19

Keywords

Novice programming
support tools

Access to Document

10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886

Cite this

Ichinco, M., & Kelleher, C. (2019). Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning. In J. Smith, C. A. Bogart, J. Good, & S. D. Fleming (Eds.), Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019 (pp. 45-53). Article 8818886 (Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC; Vol. 2019-October). IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886

Ichinco, Michelle ; Kelleher, Caitlin. / Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning. Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019. editor / Justin Smith ; Christopher A. Bogart ; Judith Good ; Scott D. Fleming. IEEE Computer Society, 2019. pp. 45-53 (Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC).

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title = "Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning",

abstract = "Though support for learning computing in schools is growing, many children still begin learning to program without formal support in open-ended programming environments. While researchers have evaluated the final code of these types of projects, we know little about how users' behaviors and usage of support tools relate to understanding. We ran a study where participants had open-ended programming time with access to one of two support tools: suggestions or tutorials. Participants then completed four tasks which required understanding of the suggestion or tutorial content. We did not find an effect of suggestions compared to tutorials on knowledge application, but we did find that many participants who performed better tended to explore more of the interface, code behaviors, and support tools. Our results suggest that future tools for encouraging learning during open-ended programming should likely focus on supporting users who tend to explore less on their own.",

keywords = "Novice programming, support tools",

author = "Michelle Ichinco and Caitlin Kelleher",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 IEEE.; 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019 ; Conference date: 14-10-2019 Through 18-10-2019",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886",

language = "English",

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Ichinco, M & Kelleher, C 2019, Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning. in J Smith, CA Bogart, J Good & SD Fleming (eds), Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019., 8818886, Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC, vol. 2019-October, IEEE Computer Society, pp. 45-53, 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019, Memphis, United States, 10/14/19. https://doi.org/10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886

Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning. / Ichinco, Michelle; Kelleher, Caitlin.
Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019. ed. / Justin Smith; Christopher A. Bogart; Judith Good; Scott D. Fleming. IEEE Computer Society, 2019. p. 45-53 8818886 (Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC; Vol. 2019-October).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Kelleher, Caitlin

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AB - Though support for learning computing in schools is growing, many children still begin learning to program without formal support in open-ended programming environments. While researchers have evaluated the final code of these types of projects, we know little about how users' behaviors and usage of support tools relate to understanding. We ran a study where participants had open-ended programming time with access to one of two support tools: suggestions or tutorials. Participants then completed four tasks which required understanding of the suggestion or tutorial content. We did not find an effect of suggestions compared to tutorials on knowledge application, but we did find that many participants who performed better tended to explore more of the interface, code behaviors, and support tools. Our results suggest that future tools for encouraging learning during open-ended programming should likely focus on supporting users who tend to explore less on their own.

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KW - support tools

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Ichinco M, Kelleher C. Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning. In Smith J, Bogart CA, Good J, Fleming SD, editors, Proceedings - 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2019. IEEE Computer Society. 2019. p. 45-53. 8818886. (Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC). doi: 10.1109/VLHCC.2019.8818886

Open-Ended Novice Programming Behaviors and their Implications for Supporting Learning

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