Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

Judy Sheard; Beth Simon; Angela Carbone; Errol Thompson; Raymond Lister; Jacqueline L. Whalley

doi:10.1145/1384271.1384328

Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

Judy Sheard^*, Beth Simon, Angela Carbone, Errol Thompson, Raymond Lister, Jacqueline L. Whalley

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference output › Conference publication

Abstract

This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE
Publisher	ACM
Pages	209-213
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Print)	9781605580784
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1384271.1384328
Publication status	Published - 2008
Event	ITiCSE 2008: 13th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - Madrid, Spain Duration: 30 Jun 2008 → 2 Jul 2008

Conference

Conference	ITiCSE 2008: 13th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Madrid
Period	30/06/08 → 2/07/08

Keywords

Comprehension
CS1
Novice programmers
SOLO taxonomy

Access to Document

10.1145/1384271.1384328

Cite this

@inproceedings{4eaf712a65844441927003e50f193937,

title = "Going SOLO to assess novice programmers",

abstract = "This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - {"}In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does{"} - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates.",

keywords = "Comprehension, CS1, Novice programmers, SOLO taxonomy",

author = "Judy Sheard and Beth Simon and Angela Carbone and Errol Thompson and Raymond Lister and Whalley, {Jacqueline L.}",

year = "2008",

doi = "10.1145/1384271.1384328",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781605580784",

pages = "209--213",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE",

publisher = "ACM",

address = "United States",

note = "ITiCSE 2008: 13th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education ; Conference date: 30-06-2008 Through 02-07-2008",

}

Sheard, J, Simon, B, Carbone, A, Thompson, E, Lister, R & Whalley, JL 2008, Going SOLO to assess novice programmers. in Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE., 1384328, ACM, pp. 209-213, ITiCSE 2008: 13th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Madrid, Spain, 30/06/08. https://doi.org/10.1145/1384271.1384328

TY - GEN

T1 - Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

AU - Sheard, Judy

AU - Simon, Beth

AU - Carbone, Angela

AU - Thompson, Errol

AU - Lister, Raymond

AU - Whalley, Jacqueline L.

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates.

AB - This paper explores the programming knowledge of novices using Biggs' SOLO taxonomy. It builds on previous work of Lister et al. (2006) and addresses some of the criticisms of that work. The research was conducted by studying the exam scripts for 120 introductory programming students, in which three specific questions were analyzed using the SOLO taxonomy. The study reports the following four findings: when the instruction to students used by Lister et al. - "In plain English, explain what the following segment of Java code does" - is replaced with a less ambiguous instruction, many students still provide multistructural responses; students are relatively consistent in the SOLO level of their answers; student responses on SOLO reading tasks correlate positively with performance on writing tasks; postgraduates students manifest a higher level of thinking than undergraduates.

KW - Comprehension

KW - CS1

KW - Novice programmers

KW - SOLO taxonomy

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UR - https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1384271.1384328

U2 - 10.1145/1384271.1384328

DO - 10.1145/1384271.1384328

M3 - Conference publication

AN - SCOPUS:57349113806

SN - 9781605580784

SP - 209

EP - 213

BT - Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education, ITiCSE

PB - ACM

T2 - ITiCSE 2008: 13th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

Y2 - 30 June 2008 through 2 July 2008

ER -

Going SOLO to assess novice programmers

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Conference

Keywords

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