The Problem Space

A Tool for Teaching and Learning Programming

Abstract

Studies show that novice programmer use a range of self-made strategies when problem solving. They step through code, insert print statements, and test incrementally. Yet their debugging skills are often unsystematic. This is partly due to cognitive overload and reliance on habitual practices. Teachers also struggle to interpret students’ questions when prior actions remain hidden in what has been written in the code. Consequently, teachers require a didactical tool that support the reconstruction and interpretation of what made the students’ question important in the first place. In the paper, we draw from pragmatism and a student case where novice programmers are solving syntactical, contextual and semantical problems simultaneously, to argue for a problem space. The concept serves as a didactic tool to support teaching and learning problem-solving in programming, as teacher and students become aware of the different problems, when the problematic situations translate into inquiries. The concept does so without disclosing the solutions to students’ problems and opportunities to gain valuable insights.