TY - JOUR
T1 - Saving weak programming students
T2 - Applying constructivism in a first programming course
AU - Lui, Andrew K.
AU - Kwan, Reggie
AU - Poon, Maria
AU - Cheung, Yannie H.Y.
PY - 2004/6
Y1 - 2004/6
N2 - The Perform approach aims to improve the success rate of weak students in a first programming course. The approach, based on constructivism, takes a tight control on the mental model construction process in the weak students, and allows the students to navigate through many conceptual pitfalls in programming fundamentals. The paper covers a discussion of applying constructivism in programming, exposes common hazards in the learning process, illustrates why weak students are weak, and then suggests several guidelines that can help the weak students to attain at least foundation level programming. The paper ends with a summary of our experiences in the effect of the Perform approach.
AB - The Perform approach aims to improve the success rate of weak students in a first programming course. The approach, based on constructivism, takes a tight control on the mental model construction process in the weak students, and allows the students to navigate through many conceptual pitfalls in programming fundamentals. The paper covers a discussion of applying constructivism in programming, exposes common hazards in the learning process, illustrates why weak students are weak, and then suggests several guidelines that can help the weak students to attain at least foundation level programming. The paper ends with a summary of our experiences in the effect of the Perform approach.
KW - Computer science education
KW - Constructivism
KW - Mental models
KW - Programming
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645793776&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1024338.1024376
DO - 10.1145/1024338.1024376
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:33645793776
SN - 0097-8418
VL - 36
SP - 72
EP - 76
JO - SIGCSE Bulletin (Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education)
JF - SIGCSE Bulletin (Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education)
IS - 2
ER -