The same but different students' understandings of primitive and object variables

  • Authors:

  • Juha Sorva

  • Affiliations:

  • Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Koli '08 Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computing Education Research
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

From qualitative analysis of student interviews emerged three sets of categories, or outcome spaces, describing introductory students' understandings of variables. One outcome space describes different ways of understanding primitive variables. Another describes different understandings of object variables. The third outcome space describes the relationship between the primitive and object variables, again from the point of view of the student cohort. The results show that learners create various kinds of mental models of programming concepts, and that the concept of variable, which is fundamental to most types of programming, is understood in various non-viable ways. With the help of the outcome spaces, teaching materials and tools can be developed to explicitly address potential pitfalls and highlight educationally critical aspects of variables to students. A software tool, which would engage students to interact with and manipulate a visualization of a notional machine, suggests itself as an intriguing avenue for future work.