research-article

Concrete examples of abstraction as manifested in students' transformative experiences

Authors:

Jan Erik Moström,

Jonas Boustedt,

Robert McCartney,

Carol ZanderAuthors Info & Claims

ICER '08: Proceedings of the Fourth international Workshop on Computing Education Research

Pages 125 - 136

https://doi.org/10.1145/1404520.1404533

Published: 06 September 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper examines transformational learning experiences of computing students as a way to better understand threshold concepts in computing. From empirical evidence we found that students often describe transformative experiences as learning situations in which they were led to use various kinds of abstraction, for example modularity, data abstraction, inheritance, polymorphism, reuse, design patterns, and complexity. Some students describe an abstract concept as coming first, and then needing to be made concrete though application; others describe transformations in which they learn the advantages of these abstract concepts from their experience of not using them.

Abstraction is certainly of central importance in computer science. It appears, however, from our students' descriptions of transformative experiences, that abstraction per se is not a threshold, but that particular concepts in which abstraction is paramount exhibit the characteristics of threshold concepts.

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Cited By

Selva MBroquedis FStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Mining Jewels Together: Debating about Programming Threshold Concepts in Large ClassesProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630893(1189-1195)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630893
Mackay SMcSkimming BDecker A(2024)Interview Iterations and Improvements for Identifying Intermediate Computer Science Threshold Concepts2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893570(1-5)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893570
Flores PRivas ITorres J(2023)Difficulties in Object-Oriented Design and its relationship with Abstraction: A Systematic Review of LiteratureProceedings of the 4th European Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3651640.3651643(1-13)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651640.3651643
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Index Terms

Concrete examples of abstraction as manifested in students' transformative experiences
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICER '08: Proceedings of the Fourth international Workshop on Computing Education Research

September 2008

192 pages

ISBN:9781605582160

DOI:10.1145/1404520

Co-chair:
Michael E. Caspersen
University of Aarhus, Denmark
,
General Chairs:
Raymond Lister
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
,
Mike Clancy
University of California-Berkeley, USA

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 06 September 2008

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September 6 - 7, 2008

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Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Selva MBroquedis FStephenson BStone JBattestilli LRebelsky SShoop L(2024)Mining Jewels Together: Debating about Programming Threshold Concepts in Large ClassesProceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3626252.3630893(1189-1195)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3626252.3630893
Mackay SMcSkimming BDecker A(2024)Interview Iterations and Improvements for Identifying Intermediate Computer Science Threshold Concepts2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893570(1-5)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10893570
Flores PRivas ITorres J(2023)Difficulties in Object-Oriented Design and its relationship with Abstraction: A Systematic Review of LiteratureProceedings of the 4th European Symposium on Software Engineering10.1145/3651640.3651643(1-13)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651640.3651643
Flores PTorres JFonseca-Delgado R(2019)Design decisions under object-oriented approachProceedings of the 8th Computer Science Education Research Conference10.1145/3375258.3375269(89-97)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3375258.3375269
Yeomans LZschaler SCoate K(2019)Transformative and Troublesome? Students' and Professional Programmers' Perspectives on Difficult Concepts in ProgrammingACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/328307119:3(1-27)Online publication date: 16-Jan-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3283071
Sanders KMcCartney RSheard JMontero C(2016)Threshold concepts in computingProceedings of the 16th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/2999541.2999546(91-100)Online publication date: 24-Nov-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2999541.2999546
Miller CSettle ASheard JTenenberg JChinn DDorn B(2016)Some Trouble with TransparencyProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/2960310.2960327(133-141)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2016
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Shinners-Kennedy DFincher SSimon BClear ACutts Q(2013)Identifying threshold conceptsProceedings of the ninth annual international ACM conference on International computing education research10.1145/2493394.2493396(9-18)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2493394.2493396
Sorva JSchulte CSuhonen J(2010)Reflections on threshold concepts in computer programming and beyondProceedings of the 10th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/1930464.1930467(21-30)Online publication date: 28-Oct-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1930464.1930467
Malmi LSheard JSimon Bednarik RHelminen JKorhonen AMyller NSorva JTaherkhani ACaspersen MClancy MSanders K(2010)Characterizing research in computing educationProceedings of the Sixth international workshop on Computing education research10.1145/1839594.1839597(3-12)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2010
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