Journeys up the mountain: Different paths to learning object-oriented programming

Among the challenges facing companies transitioning from structured to object-oriented (OO) programming is how (and whether) to retrain existing procedural programmers. Common wisdom has it that old-time programmers can be retrained in object technology only with great difficulty, but new programmers lack experience building large systems and the knowledge of the business. This paper describes a study of students learning OO programming where the participants ranged in experience from a single semester of programming to over 10 years of professional programming. The purpose of this study was to explore how students learn OO programming by observing them between their first exposure to OO programming and the time they finally “get it.” We identified five categories of learners who each took a different path to learning OO programming, encountered different obstacles, and adopted different learning strategies. We describe some factors that may play a part in helping and/or hindering a student's progress and that may be used to predict a student's learning category. We conclude with suggestions for alternative training program strategies that may be appropriate for each category and with directions for future research.