Analogical Reasoning While Debugging a Series of Buggy Code

• In Event: Cognition, Media, and Learning Outcomes

Abstract

We examined the process of analogical reasoning among novice programming learners from an undergraduate early childhood education program. Our research question was: in what ways do novice programming learners reason while debugging a series of buggy code that have similar underlying errors with increased complexity? We aimed to study analogical reasoning or a lack thereof that naturally occurs. The nature of pair debugging enabled us to study collaborative, analogical reasoning that exhibited in our participants’ discourse and actions. A unique contribution is the study context that involved both virtual (block-based code) and physical objects (robots, maps). Findings are summarized and the important contributions to the analogical reasoning literature but also to the field of computer science education are highlighted.

Authors

• ChanMin Kim, Pennsylvania State University

• Eunseo Lee, Pennsylvania State University

• Emre Dinç, Pennsylvania State University

• Brian R. Belland, Pennsylvania State University