High School Teachers’ Understanding of Code Style
Diana Kirk, Ewan D. Tempero, Andrew Luxton-Reilly, Tyne V. H. Crow · 2020
The introduction of computer programming into schools has meant that many teachers are expected to become familiar with computing concepts and techniques. For senior high school programming students, one important concept is code style. Research indicates that teachers often struggle when providing feedback on code style and this means students may not be suitably prepared to study computing at tertiary level. Our goal is to understand the challenges faced by teachers in order that we might help them increase their effectiveness. In this paper, we describe a study in which we interviewed 8 teachers in New Zealand (NZ) from disparate backgrounds. We overview the main themes that emerged from the first level analysis of the data. This analysis revealed several phenomena that require a deeper analysis. We describe one of these, the tendency for teachers to focus on syllabus requirements as opposed to understanding aspects of code style at a deeper level. Our work contributes to the global knowledge base on teaching programming in high schools.