| Popis: |
An increasing number of students arrive at university with programming experience and pre-formed mental models. These models are often incorrect, with students holding entrenched misconceptions. In this paper, we describe a study that investigated whether making explicit connections between our introductory Python programming and computing systems courses could expose mental models and help identify and fix misconceptions. We hypothesised that students would develop a correct mental model by creating a low level systems implementation of a high level program. While we identified misconceptions, these prevented the students from making explicit links and correcting their mental models. We detail these misconceptions, develop a set of hypotheses for why these were held, and suggest future studies. |
