Qahmash, Ayman, Joy, Mike and Boddison, Adam (2017) Investigating high-achieving students' code-writing abilities through the SOLO taxonomy. In: 28th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2017), Delft, Netherlands, 1-3 Jul 2017. Published in: Proceedings of 28th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2017) pp. 119-128.

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Abstract

Computer Science Educationalists have implemented educational taxonomies which enhance the pedagogy for introductory programming modules. The SOLO taxonomy has been applied to measure students’ cognitive abilities in programming by classifying students’ exam answers. However, SOLO provides a generic framework that can be applied in different disciplines, including Computer Science, and this can lead to ambiguity and inconsistent classification. In this paper, we investigate highachieving students’ coding abilities and whether they tend to manifest specific SOLO categories. We address the challenges of interpreting SOLO and the limitations of code-writing problems by analysing three specific programming problems (Array Creation, Linear Search and Recursion) and solutions to those problems presented by a group of nine students. Results for the first programming problem show that six students’ responses fell into the highest possible category (Multistructural) and the remaining three were categorised in the second highest category (Unistructural). For the second problem, eight students’ responses fell into the Multistructural category, while only one response was categorised as Unistructural. For the third problem, two students provided Multistructural solutions and five students’ solutions were Unistructural, but two further students showed a lack of understanding program constructs in their solutions, which were then categorised as Prestructural.

Item Type:	Conference Item (Paper)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Computer Science
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	High school students -- Examinations, Computer Science -- Study and teaching, Computer programming
Journal or Publication Title:	Proceedings of 28th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2017)
Official Date:	24 May 2017
Dates:	Date Event 24 May 2017 Accepted
Page Range:	pp. 119-128
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Conference Paper Type:	Paper
Title of Event:	28th Annual Conference of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG 2017)
Type of Event:	Conference
Location of Event:	Delft, Netherlands
Date(s) of Event:	1-3 Jul 2017
Related URLs:	Publisher
Open Access Version:	Publisher

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