Analysis of school students' misconceptions about basic programming concepts

Background and Context Most studies about programming misconceptions are conducted at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Since the age level for starting learning programming is getting lower, there is a need for determining programming misconceptions for younger learners. Objective Our goal is to determine programming misconceptions and their time‐resistance for programming novices at the K‐12 level using Python as a text‐based programming language. Method We conducted research in the school settings during informatics classes among 98 fifth‐grade students in three elementary schools. We analysed the data collected from two Python tests students took immediately after programming lectures and 5 months later. Results and Conclusions We detected seven misconceptions: (a) Assigning the expression instead of the calculated value, (b) When reassigning the variable value, assigning the sum value to the variable, (c) Using the symbolic name of the variable instead of its value, (d) Using the first (or previously) assigned variable value, (e) Datatype misconception, (f) Sequencing misconception, and (g) Swapping variable values. By shifting focus on variables and spending more time introducing variables and sequencing during teaching, the appearance of known misconceptions is minimized compared to previous findings. Lay Description What is already known about this topic Programming misconceptions are known issues since the beginning of learning programming in the early 1980s Most programming misconceptions are time resistant. Most studies about misconceptions are conducted at the undergraduate and graduate levels. What this paper adds The goal of the study is to determine programming misconceptions for programming novices at the K‐12 level. Three more misconceptions about basic programming concepts are revealed compared to the previous findings. By shifting focus on variables and spending more time introducing variables and sequencing during teaching, the appearance of known misconceptions is minimized. Implications for practice and/or policy Being aware of misconceptions is an important aspect of a teacher's pedagogical knowledge to foster students learning. Aiming to prevent the known misconceptions, teachers can minimize it by interventions during teaching. The educators should emphasize the underlying conceptual programming concepts rather than syntactic ones related to the programming language.