skip to main content
10.1145/2787622.2787744acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesicerConference Proceedingsconference-collections
abstract

Computer Science Is Different!: Educational Psychology Experiments Do Not Reliably Replicate in Programming Domain

Published: 09 August 2015 Publication History

Abstract

My research explores how learning computer science, specifically programming, differs from learning math or science in relation to educational psychological principles. I have replicated well established experiments from the science and math domains by using instructional design techniques that minimize the cognitive load imposed on the learner. Instead of receiving the expected results confirming that the educational psychology principles also apply to computing, I received unexpected results contrary to the original hypotheses which indicate that merely adapting these principles to a new domain is not enough. I seek to understand what differences exist in learning programming, as compared to the other problem solving domains that explain the confusing experimental results I obtained.

References

[1]
Atkinson, R. K., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., and Wortham, D. 2000. Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of educational research. 70, 2 (2000), 181--214.
[2]
Chandler, P. and Sweller, J. 1991. Cognitive load theory and the format of instruction. Cognition and instruction. 8, 4 (1991), 293--332.
[3]
Clark, R. C. and Mayer, R. E. 2011. E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Pfeiffer.
[4]
Leppink, J., Paas, F., van Gog, T., van der Vleuten, C., and van Merriënboer, J., 2014. Effects of pairs of problems and examples on task performance and different types of cognitive load. Learning and Instruction. 30, (2014), 32--42.
[5]
Margulieux, L. E., Guzdial, M., and Catrambone, R., 2012. Subgoal-labeled instructional material improves performance and transfer in learning to develop mobile applications. Proceedings of the ninth annual international conference on International computing education research (2012), 71--78.
[6]
Mayer, R. E. and Moreno, R. 2003. Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist. 38, 1 (2003), 43--52.
[7]
Morrison, B. B., Dorn, B., and Guzdial, M., 2014. Measuring cognitive load in introductory CS: adaptation of an instrument. Proceedings of the tenth annual conference on International computing education research (2014), 131--138.
[8]
Renkl, A. and Atkinson, R. K. 2003. Structuring the transition from example study to problem solving in cognitive skill acquisition: A cognitive load perspective. Educational psychologist. 38, 1 (2003), 15--22.
[9]
Sweller, J. and Cooper, G. A. 1985. The use of worked examples as a substitute for problem solving in learning algebra. Cognition and Instruction. 2, 1 (1985), 59--89.
[10]
Ward, M. and Sweller, J. 1990. Structuring effective worked examples. Cognition and instruction. 7, 1 (1990), 1--39.

Cited By

View all
  • (2018)Koios: Design, Development, and Evaluation of an Educational Visual Tool for Greek Novice ProgrammersJournal of Educational Computing Research10.1177/073563311878177657:5(1227-1259)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2018
  • (2018)Computer Science and Computational Thinking in the Curriculum: Research and PracticeHandbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_6-2(1-18)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
  • (2018)Computer Science and Computational Thinking in the Curriculum: Research and PracticeHandbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_6-1(1-18)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2018
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Computer Science Is Different!: Educational Psychology Experiments Do Not Reliably Replicate in Programming Domain

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    ICER '15: Proceedings of the eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research
    July 2015
    300 pages
    ISBN:9781450336307
    DOI:10.1145/2787622
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all 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 third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 09 August 2015

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. multi-modality code explanation
    2. subgoal labels
    3. worked examples

    Qualifiers

    • Abstract

    Funding Sources

    Conference

    ICER '15
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    ICER '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 25 of 96 submissions, 26%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 189 of 803 submissions, 24%

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)13
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
    Reflects downloads up to 21 Sep 2024

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2018)Koios: Design, Development, and Evaluation of an Educational Visual Tool for Greek Novice ProgrammersJournal of Educational Computing Research10.1177/073563311878177657:5(1227-1259)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2018
    • (2018)Computer Science and Computational Thinking in the Curriculum: Research and PracticeHandbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_6-2(1-18)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
    • (2018)Computer Science and Computational Thinking in the Curriculum: Research and PracticeHandbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_6-1(1-18)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2018
    • (2017)Familiar contexts and the difficulty of programming problemsProceedings of the 17th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research10.1145/3141880.3141898(123-127)Online publication date: 16-Nov-2017
    • (2017)Comprehension FirstProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/3105726.3106178(2-11)Online publication date: 14-Aug-2017
    • (2017)Concepts and PracticesProceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3017680.3017778(453-458)Online publication date: 8-Mar-2017
    • (2016)Novice Programmers and the Problem Description EffectProceedings of the 2016 ITiCSE Working Group Reports10.1145/3024906.3024912(103-118)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2016

    View Options

    Get Access

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Media

    Figures

    Other

    Tables

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media