Effects of Low-Level Development on Learning to Program

Abstract

There are subjects in which teaching and learning is hard by experience. Some subjects in physics, maths or computing seem to be difficult by nature. Teachers test many ways to help student learn these subjects. In Computer Programming the approach seems to be using higher-level languages, concepts and abstractions. It seems reasonable that languages similar to human language can ease the task of computer programming. Similar ideas are explored in other subjects. However, this seems contradictory with the way we construct knowledge: lower-level concepts support the development of higher-level ones. Is it possible to master higher-level concepts without previously mastering lower-level ones? Present work questions two underlying ideas that are basis of nowadays teaching: that lower-level languages like machine code and assembler are difficult by nature, and that lower-level concepts can be skipped by better teaching higher-level ones. Two experiments and one activity are presented. Evidence gathered contradicts both ideas and suggests that low-level concepts might be much more relevant than thought for computer programming.