Title: A proposal for teaching Object-Oriented Programming to undergraduate students

Authors: Stelios Xinogalos

Addresses: Department of Technology Management, University of Macedonia, Loggou-Tourpali, 59200 Naousa, Greece

Abstract: Various teaching approaches have been proposed for teaching Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) to novices. In this paper we present the results of studying students| conceptual grasp of OOP concepts in two distinct teachings based on the educational programming environments BlueJ and objectKarel. Also, students| replies regarding the effectiveness of objectKarel as a medium of introducing novices to OOP and preparing them for a transition to a conventional OOP language are presented. The main contribution of this paper relates to a new proposal for teaching OOP to undergraduate students, which is based on the combined use of objectKarel and BlueJ.

Keywords: OOP; object-oriented programming; educational programming environments; programming microworlds; teaching programming; programming education; teaching novices; undergraduate students; higher education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2009.026298

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2009 Vol.2 No.1, pp.41 - 55

Published online: 05 Jun 2009 *

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