The culture of education

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Scratch: programming for all

In his Preface the author' says that he started out to review all the more important theories upon the topics ordinarily discussed under human motivation but soon found himself more and more limited to the presentation of his own point of view. This very well characterizes the book. It is a very personal product. It is an outline with some defense of the author's own thinking about instincts and appetites and sentiments and how they function in human behavior. And as the author draws so heavily upon James and McDougall, especially the latter, the book may well be looked upon as a sort of sequel to their efforts. There is a thought-provoking distinction presented between instinct and appetite. An instinct is said to be aroused always by something in the external situation; and, correspondingly, an appetite is said to be aroused by sensations from within the body itself. This places, of course, a heavy emphasis upon the cognitive factor in all instinctive behaviors; and the author prefers to use the cognitive factor, especially the knowledge of that end-experience which will satisfy, as a means of differentiating one instinct from another. In this there is a recognized difference from McDougall who placed more emphasis for differentiation upon the emotional accompaniment. The list of instincts arrived at by this procedure is much like that of McDougall, although the author is forced by his criteria to present the possibility of food-seeking and sex and sleep operating both in the manner of an appetite and also as an instinct. The Shand-McDougall concept of sentiment is taken over and used in the explanation of moral motivation. There is the development within each personality of a sentiment for some moral principle. But this sentiment is not a very powerful motivating factor. It is reinforced by social pressures and by religion, which is treated as an effort of finite man to live in harmony with the infinite reality. Those whose psychological thinking is largely in terms of McDougall will doubtless find this volume a very satisfying expansion; but those who are at all inclined to support their psychological thinking by reference to experimental studies will not be so well pleased. The James-Lange theory, for example, is discussed without mention of the many experimental studies which it has provoked. Theoretical sources appear in general to be preferred to experimental investigations.

Human MotivationThe Mind in Action: A Study of Motives and Values. A. Campbell Garnett

In this paper we review the literature relating to the psychological/educational study of programming. We identify general trends comparing novice and expert programmers, programming knowledge and strategies, program generation and comprehension, and object-oriented versus procedural programming. (We do not cover research relating specifically to other programming styles.) The main focus of the review is on novice programming and topics relating to novice teaching and learning. Various problems experienced by novices are identified, including issues relating to basic program design, to algorithmic complexity in certain language features, to the “fragility” of novice knowledge, and so on. We summarise this material and suggest some practical implications for teachers. We suggest that a key issue that emerges is the distinction between effective and ineffective novices. What characterises effective novices? Is it possible to identify the specific deficits of ineffective novices and help them to become effec...

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Learning and Teaching Programming: A Review and Discussion

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Learning To Teach In Higher Education

This article is a brief introduction to some of the issues that teachers of programming may find helpful. It starts by presenting a fairly idiosyncratic view of teaching programming which makes use of mechanistic analogies and points out some of the pitfalls. The article goes on to examine certain errors based on the misapplication of analogies as well as certain interaction errors. The main emphasis is on the notional machine both at the general level of understanding (and misunderstanding) the relationship of the terminal to the computer as such, as well as at the more specific level of understanding assignment. Notation and mistakes that poorly-designed languages can induce novices to commit are discussed.

Some Difficulties of Learning to Program

Simplicity and visibility are two important characteristics of programming languages for novices. Novices start programming with very little idea of the properties of the notional machine implied by the language they are learning. To help them learn these properties, the notional machine should be simple. That is, it should consist of a small number of parts that interact in ways that can be easily understood, possibly by analogy to other mechanisms with which the novice is more familiar. A notional machine is the idealized model of the computer implied by the constructs of the programming language. Visibility is concerned with methods for viewing selected parts and processes of this notional machine in action. We introduce the term “commentary” which is the system's dynamic characterization of the notional machine, expressed in either text or pictures on the user's terminal. We examine the simplicity and visibility of three systems, each designed to provide programming experience to different populations of novices.

The black box inside the glass box

The explicit teaching knowledge implemented in the current generation of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) concerns mostly domain-based aspects of instructional processes, overlooking motivational aspects This paper describes an instructional planner able to make decisions (about the next task to do, whether to provide hints, etc) in order to achieve two goals: traversing the domain  domain-based planning  and maintaining the learner’s optimal motivational state  motivational planning The traditional ITS architecture is extended to include the activities of motivational state modelling and motivational planning For example, in motivational state modelling further learners’ characteristics are diagnosed, eg effort and confidence Sometimes the advice offered by a motivational planner disagrees with a domain-based plan, while in other cases both plans complement each other A method of negotiation between the motivational plan and the domain-based plan is provided in order to arrive at a decision for action by the tutor

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Implementation of motivational tactics in tutoring systems

One of the promises of ITSs and ILEs is that they will teach and assist learning in an intelligent manner. Historically this has tended to mean concentrating on the interface, on the representation of the domain and on the representation of the student’s knowledge. So systems have attempted to provide students with reifications both of what is to be learned and of the learning process, as well as optimally sequencing and adjusting activities, problems and feedback to best help them learn that domain. We now have embodied (and disembodied) teaching agents and computer-based peers, and the field demonstrates a much greater interest in metacognition and in collaborative activities and tools to support that collaboration. Nevertheless the issue of the teaching competence of ITSs and ILEs is still important, as well as the more specific question as to whether systems can and should mimic human teachers. Indeed increasing interest in embodied agents has thrown the spotlight back on how such agents should behave with respect to learners. In the mid 1980s Ohlsson and others offered critiques of ITSs and ILEs in terms of the limited range and adaptability of their teaching actions as compared to the wealth of tactics and strategies employed by human expert teachers. So are we in any better position in modelling teaching than we were in the 80s? Are these criticisms still as valid today as they were then? This paper reviews progress in understanding certain aspects of human expert teaching and in developing tutoring systems that implement those human teaching strategies and tactics. It concentrates particularly on how systems have dealt with student answers and how they have dealt with motivational issues, referring particularly to work carried out at Sussex: for example, on responding effectively to the student’s motivational state, on contingent and Vygotskian inspired teaching strategies and on the plausibility problem. This latter is concerned with whether tactics that are effectively applied by human teachers can be as effective when embodied in machine teachers.

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Modelling Human Teaching Tactics and Strategies for Tutoring Systems: 14 Years On

We describe DISCOVER, a tutor for elementary programming that combines a free phase, in which students may experiment in building and executing programs of their own, with a guided phase where problems are set and their solutions monitored. The system embodies a visible, executable, concrete model of the notional machine. When setting a problem, the system offers example solutions of similar problems. A pilot experiment is described to investigate the effects on problem-solving, during the guided phase, of providing the concrete model and the similar examples.

Benedict du Boulay

Papers

Some Difficulties of Learning to Program

The black box inside the glass box

Implementation of motivational tactics in tutoring systems

Modelling Human Teaching Tactics and Strategies for Tutoring Systems: 14 Years On

Programming Environments for Novices