Improving Tutors’ Practice by Integrating Explicit Instructional Programming Strategies in Introductory Programming Courses at University
(2025)
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- Abstract
- Context. Often, university-level introductory programming courses (CS1) make use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs). Such UTAs generally are responsible for most of the students' interactions with the CS1 course. UTAs usually have no pedagogical background. While some universities provide pedagogical training and research documents these trainings, challenges and interactions, pedagogical content knowledge specific to the teaching of programming has not been extensively researched. Objective. In this dissertation, we explore how UTAs' teaching practices can be improved by training them with dedicated evidence-based explicit instructional programming strategies. Moreover, we want to understand and characterise how UTAs use and adapt these strategies, what hinders and helps them. Methods. Based on learning transfer processes and cognitive load theory, we selected four strategies: explicit tracing, subgoal learning, Parsons problems and explicit problem solving. We used a design research approach to iterate on our interventions on the instructional design of the course's setup in three different years. This iterative process allowed us to gradually tailor explicit tracing and subgoal learning to the studied CS1 course. We progressively increased the number of UTAs participating in our study, while refining our intervention up to a full integration of the subgoal learning strategy throughout the course. We collected data on tutors' usage of the instructional strategies by mixing methods: semi-directed interviews, surveys and observations. The data was analysed using thematic analysis with both inductive and deductive coding, and the concept of fidelity of implementation. Findings. This dissertation reports on the results of this iterative process. We found that integrating subgoal learning throughout the course pushed UTAs to apply explicit instructional programming strategies in their practice. We also report on triggers for strategy uses by UTAs, adaptations made by UTAs and UTAs' fidelity of implementation of explicit tracing and subgoal learning. Implications. Since UTAs are widely used in CS courses, this work provides research-informed actionable advice to practitioners willing to integrate explicit instructional strategies in their own setup. We also discuss the feasibility of applying these strategies to school teachers.
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Citations
Goletti, O. (2025). Improving Tutors’ Practice by Integrating Explicit Instructional Programming Strategies in Introductory Programming Courses at University. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/241411