Hi all,
For My PhD I performed a multi-institutional study on the ability of
students to read and write code, with the goal of identifying suitable
assessment exercises to give a good indication of a students programming
ability.
What I found was that many students can simulate an ability to write
code, by learning off template solutions (i.e. all array questions will
require code that *looks* like this...
---------------------------------
for (int i=0;i<array.length;i++)
{
if (Condition)
{
// do one thing
}
else {
// do the other
}
}
-------------------------------------
So these students will always look like they can write some code, but in
reality, are only capable of rote learning.
In my study these students were incapable of comprehending simple code
snippets, and calculating their output.
So in short, I have found that some students can score reasonably in the
"code writing", due to shoddy marking schemes, yet will always fail
comprehension questions where the student must understand all the
operators and basic rules of programming.
My most recent paper on this study is still in heavy draft as it
involves indepth qualitative analysis of these issues (I interviewed 35
students as part of the study), however I had a paper in ACE 2006 which
will provide more data.
Regards,
Des Traynor
On Thu, 2007-03-22 at 14:56 +0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I have just had my paper entitled "Spatial skills and navigation of source
> code" accepted for the ITiCSE conference. One of the questions I have been
> asked is if spatial ability correlates with program development ability, an
> area not looked at in my study (I focussed on program
> comprehension/reading).
>
> Does anyone know of any work showing correlations between the ability to
> read and write code? And if there is any work to show a relationship
> between WRITING code and navigational/spatial ability?
>
> Thanks very much,
>
> Sue
>
>
>
>
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