Exploring the Impact of Cognitive Awareness Scaffolding for Debugging in an Introductory Programming Class

Abstract

Debugging involves the simultaneous application of a number of programming skills - reading code, writing code, problem comprehension, etc. This makes it a challenging activity for novice programmers. Unfortunately, debugging is rarely taught explicitly in introductory programming courses, and is often learned as an implicit goal through programming assignments. In this experience report we explore the impact of a cognitive awareness scaffold to help students monitor their progress as they debug their code. We created a simple form that students used to document their debugging process when they ran into bugs. The form asks questions that students are likely to be asked by course staff during office hours, e.g., "What have you tried so far?''. This act of verbalizing errors and enumerating successful and unsuccessful strategies to fix them is meant to help students monitor their own debugging progress. We examined the cognitive awareness demonstrated in form responses, finding that responses were more superficial on projects of higher difficulty. Additionally, we gave students an exit survey to measure the perceived impact of the debugging form on students' ability to regulate their debugging process and their confidence while debugging. Students indicated that the form helped them better verbalize errors in their programs, and helped them surmount problems with which they would otherwise have needed help.