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Full Reference start a new search Author(s): Breed, Betty Title: The reflective abilities of expert and novice learners in computer programming Pages: 12p Note: Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 11-13 September 2003. Author contact: University of Potchefstroom, South Africa Abstract: Computer programming is the component of Computer Science demanding much of a learner in terms of critical and creative thinking, as well as problem solving abilities. Computer programming especially requires that a learner should plan his/her work throughout, monitor his/her own progress and evaluate his/her own performance. By virtue of many years of teaching experience we know that most university students come from education systems in which memorisation and reproduction were emphasized. The requirements of critical, independent and problem solving thinking demanded by computer programming are usually not part of their skills or abilities. They find it difficult to reason and function strategically, self-regulative and reflectively. Reflection is necessary as it leads a learner to think about his/her own thoughts and actions before he/she begins to write the programme, while he/she is working on it and after he/she has finished the task. Reflection enables a learner to link the current task to his/her metacognitive and previous knowledge. It also enables a learner to draw inferences from the effectiveness of used strategies to make possible changes or adjustments in the current task. The aim of this research is to determine the differences between expert and novice learners in computer programming regarding their reflective abilities. Research has shown that the difference between expert and novice learners goes beyond the quantity of knowledge they possess. In this paper we view an expert learner as one who performs well in computer programming and reaches his/her goal easily. A novice learner is viewed not to perform well in computer programming and have difficulties in reaching goals. To assess the reflective abilities of expert and novice learners in computer programming, an empirical evaluation was conducted. Thirty students in their second year of teacher training with Computer Science as a major subject were given a programming task to complete individually in class. The task was based on the outcomes that they should have reached at the specific point in time. The tasks were assessed and the five students with the highest scores and the five with the lowest scores were used as "expert" and "novice" learners respectively in the rest of the research. These ten students were then given a novel programming task that they had to finish in class within a set time limit. Directly afterwards they had to complete a questionnaire about their thoughts, actions and reflective thinking with regard to the task they had just completed. The results provided a number of interesting insights into the degree of reflection in which these expert and novice learners were respectively engaged before beginning to write the programme, while working on it and after finishing the task. The most outstanding result was that neither of the groups tended to do any reflection after they had completed the task (author abstract) Level: Higher Education Document type: Conference Papers Subjects: Computer Programming; Computer Science Education; Learning Strategies; Reflective Practice; South Africa; University Students -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full Text: You can choose to see The document in HTML form The document in Microsoft Word for Windows form >>> "Gerold Keefer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 02/10/04 10:23 AM >>> hi andree, i have difficulties in grasping what your study is about. what is the purpose? what are the goals? what is a "reflective practice"? best regards, gerold -----Urspr�ngliche Nachricht----- Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Auftrag von Andree Woodcock Gesendet: Freitag, 6. Februar 2004 17:20 An: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Betreff: PPIG discuss: programming as reflective practice Hi I have just subscribed to this list. I am a Research Fellow in the Design Institute, Coventry School of Art and Design and think my work may be of interest to some of you. I have recently been awarded a small AHRB grant to study programming as reflective practice ( a la Schon) and am currently engaged on a literature review and pilot study The research is in three parts 1) Studying programmers programming 2) On-line interviews/chats with programmers - here I am looking to capture groups of shareware authors, who are enthusiastic about what they do and willing to talk about how they engage in their activity, rather than those who engage on more mundane tasks 3) Development of an on-line group essay, which I will run off the project web site. If any of you know of any articles/discussion groups/web sites or are engaged in similar lines of activity please let me know many thanks Andree ------------------- Andree Woodcock Research Fellow and Postgraduate Tutor Coventry University 02476 -888521 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
