On Students' Usage of Tracing for Understanding Code
Mohammed Hassan, Craig Zilles
Abstract
Explain in Plain English (EiPE) questions evaluate whether students can understand and explain the high-level purpose of code. We conducted a qualitative think-aloud study of introductory programming students solving EiPE questions. In this paper, we focus on how students use tracing (mental execution) to understand code in order to explain it.
Topics & Concepts
TracingComputer scienceFocus (optics)Code (set theory)Programming languageThink aloud protocolMental modelMathematics educationOrder (exchange)Human–computer interactionPsychologyCognitive scienceUsabilityFinanceEconomicsPhysicsOpticsSet (abstract data type)Teaching and Learning ProgrammingSoftware Testing and Debugging TechniquesSoftware Engineering Research