Authors:
Tlou Ramabu
1
;
Ian Sanders
2
and
Marthie Schoeman
2
Affiliations:
1
Department of Computer Science, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa
;
2
Department of Computer Science, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Keyword(s):
Programming, Nested-decision, Manipulatives, Struggling Students, Comprehension.
Abstract:
Programming is one of the major subjects within the field of computing. In the higher education sector, some introductory programming students succeed while others find it difficult to progress or learn the material. Methods of teaching to program do not accommodate struggling students. Among introductory programming issues, the nested-decision statement is one of the misconceived concepts. In the literature, there is evidence that some programming educators make use of physical manipulatives to teach introductory programming. However, there is no framework or validation methods used to identify and use the manipulatives. In this study, we designed a manipulative called Nested-decider to assist struggling introductory programming students to develop an appropriate conceptual knowledge about nested-decisions. The details of the design and its functionalities are presented in this paper. We believe that teaching and learning nested-decisions with the proposed Nested-decider manipulativ
e could be a useful pedagogical intervention towards enhancing struggling students’ comprehension. This is ongoing research where we identify and test various manipulatives for struggling introductory programming students. The results will also help us to develop a manipulatives – oriented pedagogical framework, which can be used to inform identification and use of manipulatives.
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