Abstract

This paper identifies novice programmer activities and their implications for the programming outcome. We investigate strategies, cognitive processes and behavior within interacting phases of programming: 1) understanding and design, 2) coding, and 3) debugging and testing. We envision that stronger novice programmers behave differently from weaker novice programmers during the programming process. We develop a questionnaire-based tool, the programming strategy questionnaire (PSQ), which we use to identify the activities novices employ during their development of a program, and we link the strategies to learning outcomes. Finally, we discuss how educators can use our findings to improve the education of novice programmers.

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