Subsidies to the Conduction of Experiments in the Teaching of Programming Foundations

• Grant number: 16/17575-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): January 18, 2017
• Effective date (End): January 17, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Ellen Francine Barbosa
• Grantee: Lilian Passos Scatalon
• Supervisor: Jeffrey C. Carver
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Alabama (UA), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/06656-8 - Subsidies to the Conduction of Experiments in the Teaching of Programming Foundations, BP.DR

Abstract

Several approaches, methods and educational tools have been proposed aimed at dealing with the weaknesses and problems related to the teaching of programming. In order to adequately investigate the effectiveness of these proposals, the conduction of experimental studies represents a fundamental activity to be considered. However, despite their relevance, there is a lack of experiments in the teaching of programming. Furthermore, the existing studies in this context are often criticized by a lack of research rigor. In this perspective, the doctoral project ``Subsidies to the Conduction of Experiments in the Teaching of Programming Foundations'' (FAPESP 2014/06656-8) has a twofold goal: (i) to establish supporting mechanisms for experimentation on the teaching of programming and (ii) conduct experiments in this context while applying the proposed supporting mechanisms, in order to pursue more research rigor. Aligned to the doctoral project, this internship research project aims to work towards the development of supporting mechanisms to experimentation on the teaching of programming. We intend to use as a reference the experimental methodology already consolidated in the Software Engineering area and to investigate what are the specificities inherent to the teaching of programming area. More specifically, we intend to establish an initial research framework for educational experiments on the teaching of programming. The proposed framework should be composed by theoretical models such as the common variables and metrics. The purpose is to help researchers and instructors of programming courses in the definition and planning of experiments in this scenario.