From procedural to object-oriented programming (OOP) - an exploratory study of teachers' performance

This exploratory study of introductory preand in-service teachers’ performance in object-oriented programming (OOP) assessments reveals important issues with regard to learning and teaching OOP, using Java. The study is set against the backdrop of the country’s transition of its national IT curriculum from a procedural to an object-oriented programming language. The effect of prior programming experience and performances in different types of questions are examined. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to analyse the data. The effect of prior programming experience of a procedural kind and the type of assessments given is shown to have a marked influence on the performance in programming assessments and teaching of OOP. Many introductory OOP courses are in effect taught procedurally as courses in the small. Therefore educating teachers how to teach programming is an important educational challenge. Some implications for teaching are therefore suggested.