Codification Pedagogy for Introductory Courses

Abstract

Codification is a legal term defining the process of ordering rules corresponding to a plan. This term is applicable to Software Development to describe the ordering of program requirements into coding tasks. Codification is a meta-skill taught in advanced Software Engineering courses for large collaborative projects, though novices lack the experience to transfer this skill to small-scale assignments. As a result, novices form their own approach, potentially contributing to poor learning behaviors, poor self-efficacy, and course attrition. My research investigates an approach for introductory courses, enabling novices to plan before they implement a solution. The approach uses Socratic questions and Parsons Problems to relate the student's current knowledge base to the assignment. The hypothesis is that the pedagogy will reduce misconceptions about the assignment and enable students to create an ordered plan without extraneous cognitive load. The research explores this approach without adding objectives to the curriculum, or increasing the teacher's workload. Further investigation will be made to apply the pedagogy to other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.