Confusion & Compilation Logs: A Study of Novice Programmer Experiences

Can we quantify confusion? Is there a relationship between confusion and compilation behavior? This study was designed to answer these questions. The knowledge and information drawn from this study may be incorporated in intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). Being able to understand the state of confusion in a novice programmer’s experience can give a picture of how a student new to programming thinks how he perceives the problem and how he creates solutions. Standards critical to excellence in programming need not be sacrificed but when learning is made more manageable the novice programmer gets this message: “We can make you the best programmer ever and we would like to help.” Hopefully this message coupled with confusion – regulated learning experiences will help lessen failure and attrition rate in programming courses and information sciences in the future.