Paper Info
Title
Program Comprehension with Physical Computing: A Structure, Function, and Behavior Analysis of Think-Alouds with High School Students
Abstract
ABSTRACTComprehending programs is key to learning programming. Previous studies highlight novices' naive approaches to comprehending the structural, functional, and behavioral aspects of programs. And yet, with the majority of them examining on-screen programming environments, we barely know about program comprehension within physical computing-a common K-12 programming context. In this study, we qualitatively analyzed think-aloud interview videos of 22 high school students individually comprehending a given text-based Arduino program while interacting with its corresponding functional physical artifact to answer two questions: 1) How do novices comprehend the given text-based Arduino program? And, 2) What role does the physical artifact play in program comprehension? We found that novices mostly approached the program bottom-up, initially comprehending structural and later functional aspects, along different granularities. The artifact provided two distinct modes of engagement, active and interactive, that supported the program's structural and functional comprehension. However, behavioral comprehension i.e. understanding program execution leading to the observed outcome was inaccessible to many. Our findings extend program comprehension literature in two ways: (a) it provides one of the very few accounts of high school students' code comprehension in a physical computing context, and, (b) it highlights the mediating role of physical artifacts in program comprehension. Further, they point directions for future pedagogical and tool designs within physical computing to better support students' distributed program comprehension.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1145/3430665.3456371
Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
DocType
Citations 
PageRank 
Conference
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gayithri Jayathirtha126.51
Yasmin B. Kafai256174.54