Examining Transfer Between Programming Languages in Computer Science

在过去的十年里，“全民计算机科学”运动一直致力于扩大各个年级学生对计算机科学的参与。“全民计算机科学”运动普及了可视化或基于块的编程语言。这些语言允许学生通过图形用户界面进行编程，拖放代码块。因为学生不需要打字或记忆语法，基于块的语言可以让更年轻的学生更容易理解编程。尽管在教授年轻学生时通常使用基于块的语言，但目前还没有关于学生学习什么编程语言的标准化，而且教授不同语言的课程种类繁多。因此，随着时间的推移，学生可能会被要求学习多种基于块的语言。每种编程语言都有不同的外观和感觉（即，模块的颜色和形状）和不同的语法，并且语言之间可能存在潜在的结构和概念上的相似和差异。因此，计算机科学教育中一个长期存在的问题是，所有年龄段的学习者都经常需要能够在各种不同的语言之间使用和导航（对于年龄较大的学生和基于文本的语言也是如此）。该项目旨在了解如何帮助学生将他们在一种编程语言中学到的概念与另一种编程语言的相关概念联系起来。计算机科学教育的许多研究都考察了学生在课程从一种编程语言转换到另一种编程语言时的表现。然而，该领域仍然缺乏一个明确的理论，说明概念知识如何以及何时在程序设计的背景下成功地转移，这可以用来通知教师的专业发展和教学设计。这个项目的广泛目标是在中学生学习三种不同的基于块的编程语言时，开发和使用这样一种计算机科学特定理论。这个项目有三个目标：1)对不同的中学生进行纵向研究，因为他们通过三种语言课程序列的进步；2)发展计算机科学特有的迁移理论，描述学生如何将以前学过的编程语言知识与新的编程语言联系起来；3)运用迁移理论开发和试点测试一个教学模块，促进学生从一种编程语言到另一种编程语言的知识迁移。这项调查将在旧金山联合学区进行，在那里，许多学校目前用三种不同的基于块的编程语言教授三门中学计算机科学课程。此外，该项目旨在调查学生和教师在多门课程中的经验。这样，特定的研究设置将有利于研究的纵向性质。本项目力求在三个重要方面为该领域作出贡献。首先，计算机科学特有的迁移理论将增加对学生在不同编程语言背景下学习计算机科学概念的研究，突出学生认为特别突出或重要的语言特征。其次，该理论将指导计算机科学教师和课程开发人员设计教学，帮助学生从以前学过的编程语言中转移知识，从而潜在地提高学生在计算机科学方面的成绩。第三，该理论还将指导计算机科学评估开发人员。K-12计算机科学教育途径的多语言性质给评估学生的成长带来了挑战，因为学生在概念相同的项目上的表现可能会因使用的编程语言而不同。计算机科学特有的迁移理论将指导评估开发者创建项目和测量模型，以评估特定语言的编程知识和与语言无关的概念知识。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目支持积累有力的证据，为理解、构建理论进行解释提供依据，并提出干预和创新建议，以应对教育中持续存在的挑战。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Over the last decade, the Computer Science for All movement has worked to broaden participation in computer science for students in every grade band. The Computer Science for All movement popularized visual, or block-based, programming languages. These languages allow students to program through a graphical user interface, dragging and dropping blocks of code into place. Because students do not have to type or memorize syntax, block-based languages can make programming more accessible to younger students. Although block-based languages are commonly used when teaching young students, there is currently no standardization around what programming languages students learn, and there is a wide variety of curricula that teach different languages. As a result, students may be asked to learn multiple block-based languages over time. Each programming language can have a distinct look and feel (i.e., the colors and shapes of the blocks) and a distinct syntax, and there can be underlying structural and conceptual similarities and differences between languages. A perennial issue in computer science education, then, is that learners at all ages frequently need to be able to use and navigate between a variety of different languages (this is true among older students and text-based languages as well). This project seeks to understand how to help students connect concepts they learned in one programming language to related concepts in a new programming language. Many studies in computer science education have examined how students perform when their coursework transitions from one programming language to another. However, the field still lacks a well-specified theory of how and when conceptual knowledge successfully transfers in the context of programming that can be used to inform teacher professional development and instructional design. This project broadly aims to develop and use such a computer science-specific theory in the context of middle school students as they engage with three different block-based programming languages.There are three goals for this project: 1) Conduct a longitudinal study of diverse middle school students as they progress through a three-language course sequence; 2) Develop a computer science-specific theory of transfer to describe how students connect knowledge from previously-learned programming languages to new programming languages; and 3) Use the theory of transfer to develop and pilot-test an instructional module that facilitates students’ knowledge transfer from one programming language to another. The investigation will occur in the San Francisco Unified School District, in which many schools currently teach a sequence of three middle school computer science classes with three different block-based programming languages. Further, the project aims to investigate both student and teacher experiences across multiple courses. In this way, the specific research setting will facilitate the longitudinal nature of the study. This project seeks to contribute to the field in three important ways. First, a computer science-specific theory of transfer would add to the body of research on students’ learning of computer science concepts in the context of different programming language, highlighting features of languages that students find particularly salient or important. Second, the theory would guide computer science teachers and curriculum developers in designing instruction to help students transfer knowledge from previously learned programming languages, thus potentially improving student achievement in computer science. Third, the theory would also guide computer science assessment developers. The multilingual nature of K-12 computer science education pathways presents a challenge for assessing student growth over time, as students may perform differently on conceptually identical items depending on what programming language is being used to assess. A computer science-specific theory of transfer would guide assessment developers in creating items and measurement models that could estimate language-specific programming knowledge and language-independent conceptual knowledge.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.