Difficulties in learning computer programming for novices is a subject of abundant scientific literature. These difficulties seem to be accentuated in students whose academic choice is not computation, like architecture students. However, they need to study programming, since it is part of the new academic curricula. The results presented here are part of a PhD research, which investigates the achievement motivation and the acquisition and transfer of programming knowledge from an online environment designed on the basis of the 4C-ID instructional design model. These results are a sociodemographic analysis, and the technological competence of these subjects. We concluded that most of the students of our sample do not know how to auto assess their ICT expertise level, because they believed that they had sufficient computational knowledge for their needs. However, most of them told that they had difficulties creating codes. However, they recognized the importance of learning to program, thought it was valuable for architectural students, and felt motivated to acquire this new skill.

To help students overcome their learning difficulties in the transition from entry-level to advanced computer programming, developing an appropriate set of learning strategies, the SimProgramming teaching approach has been adopted at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal). This approach is based on four conceptual foundations: businesslike learning environment, self-regulated learning, co-regulated learning, and formative assessment. In this approach the students develop an activity based on problem-based learning, with a specific set of tasks based on those four conceptual foundations. The approach was implemented in two courses from the second and third curricular years of the bachelor programmes in Informatics Engineering and Information & Communication Technologies. We conducted semi-structured interviews with students (n=32) at the end of the courses, to try to identify the students’ strategies for self-regulation of learning in the activity developed within the SimProgramming approach. The main strategies identified were: organization, planning, time management, identification of difficulties, resolution of the difficulties encountered, work review, identification of the factors that influenced their motivation, and structure of the environment. The factors influencing the motivation most often identified by students were the impact of the assessment in the final course grade, the completion of the course, learning, skills development, and teamwork. Generally, students applied strategies to solve the difficulties, in particular by searching for social help and information search. Procrastination was also often identified by students. Strategies of time management, transformation of information, in-depth review, self-reflection, and self-evaluation were referenced scantily. We found that students changed some of their strategies from one course edition to the next. We conclude by recommending the development of educational practices to help students review their work, treat and process the information they find, conduct self-reflection and self-evaluation of their performance during tasks, adopt concentration strategies, and become aware of their specific difficulties.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 26th International Workshop on Algebraic Development Techniques, WADT 2022, held in Aveiro, Portugal, in June 2022. The 6 revised papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 25 submissions. The contributed presentations covered a range of topics about the algebraic approach to system specification, which encompasses many aspects of the formal design of software systems. Originally born as formal method for reasoning about abstract data types, the algebraic approach now covers new specification frameworks and programming paradigms (such as object-oriented, aspect-oriented, agent-oriented, logic, and higher-order functional programming) as well as a wide range of application areas (including information systems, concurrent, distributed, and mobile systems).

Higher education students exhibit difficulties in learning computer programming, particularly transitioning from initial programming to advanced programming, so it’s necessary to develop effective teaching strategies. We developed the SimProgramming approach to help students overcome learning difficulties transitioning from entry-level to advanced computer programming, by developing appropriate learning strategies. The students perform a specific set of tasks in a learning environment that simulates business operations, developing a problem-based learning assignment. One of those tasks is filling biweekly individual self-reflection and co-reflection forms. This approach was implemented at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), in a 4th semester course of two bachelor programmes: Informatics Engineering and ICT. The students provided 37 biweekly forms, on which we conducted thematic analysis to identify their strategies for co-regulation of learning during the assignment. Students are adopting different strategies in each phase of the approach. Early phases are devoted to organization, planning, and transformation of information, and later phases focus on applying theoretical knowledge and hands-on programming. We recommend including this type of pedagogical task (biwekly self-reflection and co-reflection forms) in educational practices, in view of their contribution to improving self- and co-regulation learning strategies.

Computer programming courses in higher education tend to have high rates of academic failure and students struggle, particularly so in the transition from entry-level programming to advanced programming. Some of the reasons given in the literature relate to the type of teaching approach and the strategies used by students and their attitudes towards computer programming. The literature also mentions that educational approaches are not always appropriate to the needs of students and to the development of skills required in the job market. We developed a teaching approach to try to address some of these issues and support students learning computer programming in the transition from entry-level to advanced computer programming: the SimProgramming approach. This approach was introduced at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal), within the scope of the course “Programming Methodologies III”, part of the second curricular year of the programmes of studies in Informatics Engineering and in Information & Communication Technologies. We present in detail the origins of the SimProgramming approach, starting from the first trials that introduced, in two iterations, learning activities based on problem-based learning, and up to the third iteration where the current SimProgramming approach was implemented. We describe the reasoning, design and implementation of these three iterations, to show how the approach evolved. The SimProgramming approach is based in four conceptual foundations: business-like learning environment, self-regulated learning, co-regulated learning and formative assessment. For each of these conceptual foundations, we explain the teaching strategies adopted. In SimProgramming, the learning activity process develops in four phases, and students have specific tasks in each phase. We analyse interview data regarding student perceptions about the SimProgramming approach, and registration grids data on team work dynamics and final assessment of the assignment, noting the impact of SimProgramming in student grades. The application of SimProgramming revealed promising evidences in the overall results of student learning in the activities proposed in this approach. The average grades improved, and did the number of students regularly submitting their tasks on schedule. The perceptions of students regarding the SimProgramming approach are very positive: they recommend using it in the following years, and provided some suggestions to improve the approach. We conclude with reflections and recommendations for subsequent development of the SimProgramming approach in its application to the teaching of computer programming and potential for using it in other educational contexts.

High academic failure rates in computer programming are significant transitioning from initial to advanced stages. In online higher education, challenges are greater since students’ autonomy requires greater skills for self-regulation and co-regulation of learning. The SimProgramming approach develops these skills and is being adapted to e-learning for this transitioning phase. In this paper, we describe the dynamics and outcomes of student participation and task development in a first iteration of the adapted e-SimProgramming approach, which took place during a 2nd year-2nd semester course for the Informatics Engineering program at Universidade Aberta in the 2018/2019 academic year. We identified pedagogical and technical challenges, requiring changes for subsequent attempts of adopting SimProgramming for online education contexts: target audience and teaching context aspects; self and co-regulation of learning dimensions of e-learning courses; pedagogical design recommendations; and requirements for software tools for learning management.

This paper presents an action research study aiming to motivate undergraduate students to develop their computer programming learning skills, particularly within the transition from beginner to proficient level. The SimProgramming motivational approach is presented as a didactic proposal for this context. From the results of this iterative research process, we concluded that SimProgramming is a promising tool for teaching computer programming skills in intermediate classes, with potential to be used and/or applied in other educational contexts.

The SimProgramming teaching approach has the goal to help students overcome their learning difficulties in the transition from entry-level to advanced computer programming and prepare them for real-world labour environments, adopting learning strategies. It immerses learners in a businesslike learning environment, where students develop a problem-based learning activity with a specific set of tasks, one of which is filling weekly individual forms. We conducted thematic analysis of 401 weekly forms, to identify the students’ strategies for self-regulation of learning during assignment. The students are adopting different strategies in each phase of the approach. The early phases are devoted to organization and planning, later phases focus on applying theoretical knowledge and hands-on programming. Based on the results, we recommend the development of educational practices to help students conduct self-reflection of their performance during tasks.

This paper presents the outcomes of a research project focused on the training of Computational Thinking, resorting to a block-based visual programming language created to program an Arduino Uno based robot. To support the design and implementation of the visual programming environment Robi, we start discussing the relevance of Educational Robotics to motivate and engage children in programming activities. Students usually face great difficulties to learn computer programming and it is nowadays accepted that young people shall be trained in Computational Thinking to acquire the skills necessary to easily solve problems within and beyond the realm of Computer Science and Engineering. The resolution of obstacles imposed by the costs and reduced availability of typical Educational Robotics kits, in combination with the benefits of existing block-based programming languages, like simplicity and intuitiveness, motivated the project here reported and analyzed. We aim at showing that Robi, a visual block-based programming language and robot programming environment, provides an easy, accessible and intuitive platform to learn how to solve problems programming a computer and support the training of Computational Thinking.

Students face several challenges when learning computer programming languages, a central topic to acquire programming skills. While those challenges that present a predominantly technical nature have been intensely studied by researchers along the years, the ones that are concerned with qualitative, and personal aspects have not. Affinity to a programming language is one of the many personal factors that may contribute to surpass these qualitative aspects that describe the difficulties that students face. From this point-of-view, this paper presents a proposal for treating and studying programmers' affinity to programming languages as an important factor for learning computer programming. It also reports a preliminary questionnaire conducted on a master's degree class at Universidade do Minho that showed that affinity may have a broader relation to learning computer programming than anticipated. Finally, a set of relevant questions are stated to compose a future inquiry aimed at deepening the knowledge on the affinity between programmers and languages, paving the way for following research.

Hidden k-logics can be considered as the underlying logics of program specification. They constitute natural generalizations of k-deductive systems and encompass deductive systems as well as hidden equational logics and inequational logics. In our abstract algebraic approach, the data structures are sorted algebras endowed with a designated subset of their visible parts, called filter, which represents a set of truth values. We present a hierarchy of classes of hidden k-logics. The hidden k-logics in each class are characterized by three different kinds of conditions, namely, properties of their Leibniz operators, closure properties of the class of their behavioral models, and properties of their equivalence systems. Using equivalence systems, we obtain a new and more complete analysis of the axiomatization of the behavioral models. This is achieved by means of the Leibniz operator and its combinatorial properties. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introductory computer programming disciplines commonly show a significant failure rate. Although several reasons have been advanced for this state of affairs, we argue that for a beginner student it is hard to understand the difference between know-about disciplines and know-how-to-do-it disciplines, such as computer programming. This leads to failure because when students understand they are not able to solve a programming problem it is usually too late to catch all the time meanwhile lost. In order to make students critically analyse their progress, instructors have to provide them with realistic indicators of their performance. To achieve this awareness and to trigger corrective actions in a timely manner there is a need to increase assessment frequency. This paper discusses how this can be done, analyses benefits of the proposed approach and presents data on the effects of changes in assessment frequency for a university first year course in fundamentals of computer programming.

Este documento relata um Projeto de Mestrado, do segundo ano do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática da Universidade do Minho, em Braga, Portugal. O projeto consiste no desenvolvimento de uma Aplicação Mobile de Realidade Aumentada a ser utilizada como Recurso Educacional para apoiar o ensino introdutório de Programação de Computadores, com o objetivo de aumentar a motivação e a perseverança dos estudantes, ajudando-os a superar certas dificuldades que muitos estudantes enfrentam na abstração e compreensão de diferentes tipos de estruturas de dados. Para atingir os objetivos do Projeto de Mestrado, foi necessário, no início, definir uma linguagem de programação imperativa com várias estruturas de dados e operações para as manipular e usar, para depois utilizar a Realidade Aumentada em telefones móveis para criar um sistema que ajude a visualizar e entender as referidas estruturas de dados. Nesta dissertação, a linguagem de programação referida é especificada e ilustrada com a ajuda de alguns exemplos. A arquitetura do sistema é proposto, e o seu desenvolvimento é descrito em detalhe, abordando os detalhes mais importantes. O sistema desenvolvido é apresentado, e os resultados obtidos a partir de um experimento envolvendo estudantes em uma sala de aula real são analisados.

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on education has opened new doors and accelerated change, and a learning opportunity has emerged towards the digital transformation of teaching models. Computing acquires a new relevance and fits into the plan to strengthen digital skills as a driver of digital knowledge, particularly relevant for children and young people. In parallel, both the close contact with computers allows the development of skills such as logical reasoning, critical thinking, creativity, communication and teamwork, and the very coexistence of citizens with digital technologies requires the prior acquisition of this knowledge, in order to be prepared to meet the new demands of modern society. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce an ongoing research project that aims at developing young children’s expression through embodied computing in order to enhance their digital knowledge, by adapting the digital manipulative (DM) Mobeybou for storytelling and narrative creation as a tool for promoting computational thinking (CT) and inherent competences through a bodily expression experience. The educational toolkit and base literature review are discussed, and the early prototypes of the programming language proposed are presented, as well as the ongoing and future work. With this initial work it was possible to conclude that computer programming has many benefits in fostering CT in children, alongside other cognitive skills, as well as the importance of stimulating children’s expression and communication that are transversal to all areas of life. Therefore, computer programming will be used and incorporated in Mobeybou in order to achieve the research aims proposed in this paper and promote children’s expression through CT development.