TITLE: Scaffolding the problem solving process with Augmented Parsons Puzzles
SPEAKER: Viviane Rehor
DATE: 20th February 2023
TIME: 13:00-14:00
DESCRIPTION:
Parsons Puzzles are exercises primarily used in introductory programming consisting of a problem description and the jumbled-up lines of a possible solution in program code. The student then has to bring those lines, or some lines of a super-set with the original lines and some distractors, in the correct order. However, the use of individual lines of code isn’t an automatic match to how we believe an advanced programmer would think about a problem. Multiple theories suggest that expert programmers reach the final solution by thinking in a top-down way by breaking the problem up into sub-goals as well as in a bottom-up way by matching these sub-goals to plans or schemas they already know. These plans or schemas represent a mental model of a pattern that they have used already in prior problems. Our Augmented Parsons Puzzles should scaffold the problem solving process for novices by giving them blocks of code that are already grouped by sub-goals to support and improve their problem solving process towards the way experts solve programming problems.

First published: 14 November 2022

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Speaker: Viviane Rehor