Classification of Programming Tasks According to Required Skills and Knowledge Representation

• Published in: Informatics in Schools. Curricula, Competences, and Competitions Vol. 9378; pp. 57 - 68
• Main Authors: Ruf, Alexander, Berges, Marc, Hubwieser, Peter
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2015; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: classification; cognitive process; cognitive psychology; computer science education; Educational equipment & technology, computer-aided learning (CAL); Ethical & social aspects of computing; knowledge; knowledge representation; novice programmer; programming; programming task; representation mode; skill; task; task type; Teaching of a specific subject
• ISBN: 9783319253954; 3319253956
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25396-1_6

Tasks represent a central part of computer science lessons, and aim to practice programming skills or to concrete abstract concepts for example. We have investigated, which types of tasks are given to novice programmers, typically. For that purpose, we have analyzed and generalized tasks from textbooks and exercise sheets. The result is a list of twelve task types classified according to required skills and knowledge representation. In addition, we found that the task types differ very much regarding their incidence. Finally, we tried to relate the three found forms of knowledge representation to concepts of cognitive psychology.