Abstract
Controlling complexity through the use of abstractions is a critical part of problem solving in programming. Thus, becoming proficient with procedural and data abstraction through the use of user-defined functions is important. Properly using functions for abstraction involves a number of other core concepts, such as parameter passing, scope and references, which are known to be difficult. Therefore, this paper aims to study students’ proficiency with these core concepts, and students’ ability to apply procedural and data abstraction to solve problems. We collected data from two years of an introductory Python course, both from a questionnaire and from two lab assignments. The data shows that students had difficulties with the core concepts, and a number of issues solving problems with abstraction. We also investigate the impact of using a visualization tool when teaching the core concepts.
Highlights
Controlling complexity is a critical part of problem solving in programming
In this paper we aim to investigate how well students are able to create and maintain abstractions in an introductory programming course in Python, and whether this ability can be improved by highlighting prerequisite concepts such as parameter passing, scope and references using Python Tutor
In this paper we examined students’ ability to create and maintain abstractions in the lab assignments of an introductory Python course
Summary
Controlling complexity is a critical part of problem solving in programming. At the end of a CS1 course a student should have acquired several tools which can be applied to create abstractions when solving complex problems. One of these tools is user-defined functions, which can be used to hide complexity through procedural abstraction and data abstraction. Many of these tools are typically taught in depth, alongside abstraction, in introductory programming courses. 5. Abstract data types and procedural decomposition. If the solution and answers are adequate, the students are considered to have passed that assignment
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