Making the analogy: Alternative delivery techniques for first year programming courses
Enda Dunican · 2002
Keywords: POP-I.B. barriers to programming, POPIV.B. teaching design This paper discusses some of the fundamental problems encountered by students on first year computer programming courses at Irish Institutes of Technology. It’s content is based on the author’s practical experience in the classroom and programming laboratories which will be supported in the near future by empirical data gathering. The reasons for many difficulties experienced by students are discussed. The objective of the proposed research is to use the analogy-based approach to learning. A structure called an analogy tree will be built and implemented in a learning tool which will use animation to simulate the relevant analogies. Finally, the future work required, and, potential problems for this project will be discussed. Problems Encountered When embarking on the delivery of a first year programming course, lecturers are faced with a number of problems. Firstly, programming students are a product of the primary and secondary educational systems that do not have a logic/problem-solving module in any of their subjects. This puts Irish students at a disadvantage compared to many of their counterparts in other countries where