How the Block-Based, Text-Based, and Hybrid Block/Text Modalities Shape Conceptual Understandings of Programming Concepts

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: Research Trends in Computer Programming and Computational Thinking

Abstract

The landscape of introductory programming environments is going through a period of rapid growth, with many new environments emerging and quickly finding their ways into classrooms. While there are many benefits to the release and adoption of new ways of introducing novices to the practice of programming and powerful ideas of computing, our understanding of the cognitive implications of these different approaches has not kept pace. In this paper, we seek to begin to fill in this gap by presenting results from a comparative study investigating how different modalities (block-based, text-based and hybrid block/text) influence learners’ emerging conceptual understandings of foundational programming ideas. In doing so, we advance our understanding of the roles of representation and modality in supporting learning.

Authors

• David Weintrop, University of Maryland - College Park

• Uri J. Wilensky, Northwestern University