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Misconceptions and concept inventory questions for binary search trees and hash tables

Published:05 March 2014Publication History

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we triangulate evidence for five misconceptions concerning binary search trees and hash tables. In addition, we design and validate multiple-choice concept inventory questions to measure the prevalence of four of these misconceptions. We support our conclusions with quantitative analysis of grade data and closed-ended problems, and qualitative analysis of interview data and open-ended problems. Instructors and researchers can inexpensively measure the impact of pedagogical changes on these misconceptions by using these questions in a larger concept inventory.

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  1. Misconceptions and concept inventory questions for binary search trees and hash tables

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGCSE '14: Proceedings of the 45th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
      March 2014
      800 pages
      ISBN:9781450326056
      DOI:10.1145/2538862

      Copyright © 2014 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 5 March 2014

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      SIGCSE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate108of274submissions,39%Overall Acceptance Rate1,595of4,542submissions,35%

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