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The advantages of data flow diagrams for beginning programming

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Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS 1992)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 608))

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Abstract

In this paper we describe DRLP (Dataflow Representation Language for Programming) a language that we have designed. DRLP is a concise and easy to use representation for novices learning programming. At the moment, DRLP is a visual isomorph of LISP. However we believe that some of ideas in DRLP could be extended to cover other languages. We describe an experiment that was conducted to determine whether DRLP has any effect on novices' programming performance. The results suggest that DRLP has advantages in that it avoids some of the obstacles of the LISP programming language but that many of the conceptual difficulties that students have are unaffected by the choice of a linear or graphical representation.

This research was supported by grant MDR 89-54745 from the National Science Foundation to the second author. The first author was supported by a United Nations Development Project Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Software Technology, Gulmohar Cross Road No. 9, 400 049, Juhu, Bombay, India

    K. S. R. Anjaneyulu

  2. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, 15213, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    John R. Anderson

Authors
  1. K. S. R. Anjaneyulu
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  2. John R. Anderson
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Claude Frasson Gilles Gauthier Gordon I. McCalla

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Anjaneyulu, K.S.R., Anderson, J.R. (1992). The advantages of data flow diagrams for beginning programming. In: Frasson, C., Gauthier, G., McCalla, G.I. (eds) Intelligent Tutoring Systems. ITS 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 608. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55606-0_68

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55606-0_68

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-55606-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47254-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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