This document discusses challenges with teaching introductory programming courses. It notes that many students enter these courses without basic understanding of loops and other fundamental concepts. As a result, dropout rates on introductory programming courses are reported to be as high as 20-40%. While programming is useful and in demand, it is not always seen as "sexy" and can be quite difficult for students. The document advocates matching course content and teaching methods to students' skills and focusing on moving students from just comprehending material to being able to generate and apply programming concepts independently in their first year of undergraduate study.

1. Dr Niamh O Riordan
Whitaker Institute J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway
Wednesday, 28th November, 2012

2. “The graduating student who professes a complete
inability to write a simple program is commonplace”
(Jenkins, 2001)
„„One wonders [...] about teaching sophisticated material to
CS1students when study after study has shown that they do
not understand basic loops…‟‟ (Winslow,
1996, p. 21).
“Many institutes report drop out rates of 20-40
percents, or even higher, of students on their introductory
programming courses” (Kinnunen and Malbi, 2006)
“Colleges and universities routinely report that 50% or more
of those students who initially choose computer science study
soon decide to abandon it” (ACM/IEEE)

3.  Motivation:
Useful and in demand
 Challenge:
Not „sexy‟ and quite difficult
 Principle: Content
EFFECTIVE
METHODS
FIT!
Student Teacher
 Scope: First year undergraduate students already enrolled in their first
Business Application Programming (BAP) course, which combines
lectures and tutorials and is based on Java

4. Not exactly a piece of cake!
“For programmers to develop competence, they
need to have good problem solving skills and a
thoroughly organised knowledge of the
programming language” (Linn and Clancy, 1992)
[cf. on the cruelty of really teaching computer science
Dijkstra (1989)]
The goal:
To move from schemas to scripts and
from comprehension to generation

5. Not always a help…
- Blames the student
- Blames the method
- Misses the point
(Biggs, 1992)
“A teacher‟s job is not to communicate the minutiae of syntax
or the nuances of some particular language, but to persuade
the students that learning to program (and so programming)

would be a good thing” (Jenkins, 2001)
The goal:
From transmission mode to Mr. Motivator
Motivation = Expectancy x Value

6. Not always so self-assured!
“You have to believe in yourself, that's the secret… I had to feel the
exuberance that comes from utter confidence in yourself. Without it,
you go down to defeat” – Charlie Chaplin
The goal:
To embolden the student

8. Niamh O Riordan
niamh.oriordan@nuigalway.ie