A Multi-dimensional Framework for Documenting Students’ Heterogeneous Experiences with Programming Bugs

David DeLiema, Yejin Angela Kwon, Andrea Chisholm, Immanuel Williams, Maggie Dahn, Virginia J. Flood, Dor Abrahamson, Francis F. Steen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

When teachers, researchers, and students describe productively responding to moments of failure in the learning process, what might this mean? Blending prior theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between failure and learning, and empirical results from four data sets that are part of a larger design-based research project, we investigate the heterogeneous processes teachers and students value and pursue following moments in which computer bugs thwart their immediate progress on an activity. These include: (1) resolving moments of failure; (2) avoiding recurring failures; (3) preparing for novel failures; (4) engaging with authority; and (5) calibrating confidence/efficacy. We investigate these processes taking into account the personal, social, and material context in which students and teachers collaborate when encountering broken computer programs, in addition to teachers’ planning efforts and the community’s reflections on past debugging experiences. We argue that moments of failure are not simply occasions for seeking resolutions. They are points of departure for decisions about how and what to foreground and interleave among a range of valued processes. Overall, this study aims to support research on the heterogeneous processes that shape how students new to a discipline such as computer programming respond to getting stuck.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)158-200
Number of pages43
JournalCognition and Instruction
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Keywords

  • Failure
  • debugging
  • design research
  • interaction analysis

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