Teaching programming strategies explicitly to novice programmers: can the way we teach strategies improve novice outcomes?

Abstract

The traditional approach to training novice programmers has been to provide explicit instruction in a programming language and its features, but to rely on implicit instruction of programming strategies (the means of solving programming problems). Studies, reported in literature, have discovered universally poor results on standardised tests for novices studying under this traditional approach. It was proposed that programming strategies should be made explicit in the instruction and assessment of novice programmers. A series of experiments was conducted that focused on explicitly teaching specific programming strategies to novice programmers. These experiments demonstrated that explicit incorporation may improve outcomes for novices and potentially improve the potential of expert programmers in future.