Testing Algorithmic Skills in Traditional and Non-Traditional Programming Environments

Mária Csernoch,János Máth,Piroska Biró,Kálmán Abari

doi:10.15388/infedu.2015.11

Abstract

The Testing Algorithmic and Application Skills (TAaAS) project was launched in the 2011/2012 academic year to test first year students of Informatics, focusing on their algorith - mic skills in traditional and non-traditional programming environments, and on the transference of their knowledge of Informatics from secondary to tertiary education. The results of the tests clearly show that students start their studies in Informatics with underdeveloped algorithmic skills, only a very few of them reaching the level of extended abstract. To find reasons for these figures we have analyzed the students' problem solving approaches. It was found that the students, al- most exclusively, only consider traditional programming environments appropriate for developing computational thinking, algorithmic skills. Furthermore, they do not apply concept and algorith- mic based methods in non-traditional computer related activities, and as such, mainly carry out in- effective surface approach methods, as practiced in primary and secondary education. This would explain the gap between the expectations of tertiary education, the students' results in the school leaving exams, and their overestimation of their knowledge, all of which lead to the extremely high attrition rates in Informatics.

Highlights

That the computer has become ubiquitous is not in question
We do not share those extreme opinions which blame birotical software (Gove, 2012, 2014) for any distracting effect, and for making CSI education ineffective. We argue that these programs are harmless; the commercialized world developed on the basis of these programs and teachers’ unconditional acceptance of the Trial-And-Error Wizard (TAEW)-based approaches has led us to our current fiasco
Testing the first year students of Informatics when starting their tertiary education in Hungary proved that students arrive from secondary education with underdeveloped algorithmic skills, and a low level of understanding programming tasks; the H1 hypothesis is not proved

Summary

Introduction

That the computer has become ubiquitous is not in question. The question is how effectively we can use it. Most school curricula have been changed in the last two decades to support this approach by emphasizing the importance of the development of digital literacy and competency In most countries these competences have been integrated into traditional school subjects and/or a new subject was introduced. This latter alternative is effectively the equivalent of formal education in CSI. In CSI education this is one of the most crucial questions and for an answer we have to look back in time to the emergence of the subject The contradictions, both in the science itself and in the developing commercial world as it has interacted with the science, affect teachers, teacher education and the development of digital competency and literacy. What should we teach and how should we teach CSI in and outside of formal education?

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Conclusion