Fuzzy OOP: Expanded and reduced term interpretations

Ronit Shmallo*, Noa Ragonis, David Ginat

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We display a novel perspective of novice OOP difficulties. In a thorough study of 120 undergraduates, in their first OOP course, we noticed a variety of misconceptions and difficulties with a wide range of basic terms and notions. Careful analysis revealed a recurring phenomenon, of fuzzy OOP conceptions, which derive from expansion and reduction of basic term features. Novices tended to expand and/or reduce properties not only of terms such as "class" and "object", but also of terms such as "static", "access", and "instance". Particular misconceptions were of the forms: "One vs. Many". We display a detailed categorization of our findings, in an ordered hierarchical structure, and discuss its cognitive characteristics.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationITiCSE'12 - Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
Pages309-314
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012
Event17th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE'12 - Haifa, Israel
Duration: 3 Jul 20125 Jul 2012

Publication series

NameAnnual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE
ISSN (Print)1942-647X

Conference

Conference17th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE'12
Country/TerritoryIsrael
CityHaifa
Period3/07/125/07/12

Keywords

  • computer science education
  • expansion
  • object-oriented programming
  • reduction

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