Code classification as a learning and assessment exercise for novice programmers

Abstract

When students are given code that is very similar in structure or purpose, how well do they actually recognise the similarities and differences? As part of the BRACElet project, a multi-institutional investigation into reading and comprehension skills of novice programmers, students were asked to classify four code segments that found the minimum or maximum in an array of numbers. This paper reports on the analysis of responses to this question and draws conclusions about the students’ ability to recognise the similarities and differences in example code. It then raises questions with respect to an approach to teaching that uses variations in code examples