A proposal for teaching Object-Oriented Programming to undergraduate students. (8th June 2009)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xinogalos, Stelios
• Is Part Of: International journal of teaching and case studies. Volume 2:Number 1(2009)
• Page Start: 41
• Page End: 55
• Publication Date: 2009-06-08
• Subjects: OOP -- object-oriented programming -- educational programming environments -- programming microworlds -- teaching programming -- programming education -- teaching novices -- undergraduate students -- higher education; Teaching -- Periodicals; 371.10205
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-9151

Abstract

Various teaching approaches have been proposed for teaching Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) to novices. In this paper we present the results of studying students' conceptual grasp of OOP concepts in two distinct teachings based on the educational programming environments BlueJ and objectKarel. Also, students' replies regarding the effectiveness of objectKarel as a medium of introducing novices to OOP and preparing them for a transition to a conventional OOP language are presented. The main contribution of this paper relates to a new proposal for teaching OOP to undergraduate students, which is based on the combined use of objectKarel and BlueJ.