A People-First Approach to Programming

Teague, D.

Students continue to find learning to program difficult. Failure rates from introductory programming units are high, as are attrition rates from IT courses. Case studies were conducted in 2007 involving Queensland University of Technology (QUT) introductory programming students who took part in weekly interviews and focus groups, and responded to questionnaires. Students divulged details relating to their attitude and approach to study, together with the level of confidence they had in their ability to learn to program. Four of the case studies are included in this paper which portrays students with varying levels of confidence motivation, determination, attitude and study ethic, and how they each struggle to learn to program. The purpose of the studies was to determine to what extent each of these factors has an influence on student learning outcomes. The studies focus on the people rather than the more traditionally studied cognitive difficulties of learning to program. The data collected from the case studies give some insight into the social barriers on many levels that students face and how they are dealt with and in some cases overcome. The paper concludes with a discussion on student programmer personas as a design taxonomy and pedagogical tool.

Cite as: Teague, D. (2009). A People-First Approach to Programming. In Proc. Eleventh Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2009), Wellington, New Zealand. CRPIT, 95. Hamilton, M. and Clear, T., Eds. ACS. 171-179.

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