NDLI: Code or (not code): separating formal and natural language in CS education

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Code or (not code): separating formal and natural language in CS education

Content Provider	ACM Digital Library
Author	Cutts, Quintin Donaldson, Peter Connor, Richard Michaelson, Greg
Abstract	This paper argues that the "institutionalised understanding" of pseudo-code as a blend of formal and natural languages makes it an unsuitable choice for national assessment where the intention is to test program comprehension skills. It permits question-setters to inadvertently introduce a level of ambiguity and consequent confusion. This is not in keeping with either good assessment practice or an argument developed in the paper that CS education should be clearly fostering the skills needed for understanding formal, as distinct from natural, languages. The argument is backed up by an analysis of 49 questions drawn from the national school CS examinations of a single country, spanning a period of six years and two phases -- the first in which no formal pseudo-code was defined, the second in which a formal reference language, referred to as a "formally-defined pseudo-code", was provided for teachers and exam setters. The analysis demonstrates that in both phases, incorrect, confusing or ambiguous code was presented in questions. The paper concludes by recommending that the term reference language should be used in place of pseudo-code, and an appropriate formally-defined language specified, in national exam settings where a common language of assessment is required. This change of terms emphasises the characteristics required of a language to be used for assessment of program comprehension. The reference language used in the study is outlined. It was designed by the authors for human readability and also to make absolutely explicit the demarcation between formal and informal language, in such a way that automated checking can be carried out on programs written in the language. Formal specifications and a checker for the language are available.
Starting Page	20
Ending Page	28
Page Count	9
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781450332507
DOI	10.1145/2670757.2670780
Language	English
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publisher Date	2014-11-05
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Program Language Reference Assessment Comprehension Pseudo-code
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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