The Role of Learning Technique on Student Performance in CS1 courses

Umberto Eco theorized a semiotic process through which people perceive, interpret, internalize (learn), and produce (articulate) information. The process involves a set of symbolic representations and transformations that model how humans acquire and process information. Hughes and Peirsi investigated Learning Approaches that students use to learn object oriented (OO) programming. Three learning approaches were described and studied to determine how effective each were for acquiring OO programming competencies. The semiotic model stimulated the idea for a conceptual framework that would incorporate these Learning Approaches. In order to integrate them into the framework, nine elemental Learning Techniques (denoted LTs) were identified. Using the framework, a strategy was developed for determining which Learning Techniques students use and which are effective for learning computer programming. This paper describes the research on these learning techniques and how they can be used to predict the performance of students in their first course in computer programming. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED STUDIES This study was done as a part of a broader study [12] researching students’ Problem Formulation Ability (PFA) and the role it plays in learning computer programming [5] [6][8] [9][11][14]. Participants were students in a first course in computer programming (denoted CS1). Although the role of PFA is described in conjunction with LT, the interested reader can review details about PFA in [12]. The objective is to develop an assessment for identifying that a student is, or is not, ready for CS1. The term CS0 is used to refer to a preparatory programming course. The investigation of Learning Technique (LT) was motivated by three separate studies: the first by Umberto Eco and his description of semiotics [3]; the second, by the application of semiotics to systems analysis and engineering [7]; and third, a study on learning approaches by Hughes and Peirsi [4]. Figure 1 (bottom of report) presents a highly compressed model of the theory of semiotics. The diagram was synthesized from reading Eco’s description of the theories of signification and of codes [3]. The transformations of signifiers to (or from) denotative interpretants, to (or from) connotative sememes, and into (or out of) a semantic model, can be used as one dimension of a conceptual framework to relate learning approaches and techniques. The concept of Learning Approach [4] had three main components: surface (i.e. memorizing), strategic (i.e. seeking a specified outcome), and deep (i.e. seeking underlying meaning). Their investigation was conducted with participants learning OO programming. A summary of their findings is presented in Table 1 below. A Surface learning approach was associated with a poor performance rating [4]. Further, an approach dominated by a surface approach but in weak combination with strategic approach (termed High Surface, Low Strategic), was also associated with poor performance. Strategic approaches (outcome or goal focused), and approaches that were predominantly strategic but mixed with a low surface approach, were associated with good performance. No participants were identified using deep approaches, but they attributed not identifying these cases in part due to a limitation in their methodology. Hughes and Peirsi did not provide visibility into the tactics that participants used to enable these learning approaches. Learning depends on the Learning Approach [4], but learning approaches are dependent on the tactics used to internalize information [2]. For example, does a student use special cases and inductive reasoning to formulate the general case? Table 1: Distribution of students’ Performance based on Learning Approach [4] *