Examples of Unsuccessful Use of Code Comprehension Strategies: A Resource for Developing Code Comprehension Pedagogy

Background: Code comprehension research has identified gaps between the strategies experts and novices use in comprehending code. In computer science (CS) education, code comprehension has recently received increased attention, and research has identified correlations between code comprehension and code writing. While there is a long history of identifying expert code-comprehension strategies, there has been less work to understand and support the incremental development of code comprehension expertise. Purpose: The goal of the paper is to identify potential code-comprehension strategies that educators could teach students. Methods: In this paper, I analyze and present examples from a novice programmer engaged in a code-comprehension task. Findings: I identify five code-comprehension strategies that overlap with previously identified, expert code-comprehension strategies. While an expert would use these strategies to produce correct inferences about code, I primarily examine a novice's unsuccessful attempts to comprehend code using these strategies. Implications: My case study provides an existence proof that shows that these five strategies can be used by a novice. This is essential for identifying potential strategies to teach novices. My primary empirical contribution is identifying potential building blocks for developing code-comprehension expertise. My primary theoretical contribution is proposing to build code-comprehension pedagogy on specific, expert strategies that I show are usable by a novice. More broadly, I hope to encourage CS education researchers to focus on understanding the complex processes of learning that occur in between the end points of novice and expert.