A freshman programming course: two challenging sets of students, one solution

This paper identifies two categories of students who pose a significant teaching challenge in a college freshman programming class, and then discusses one effective way to improve their performance. The most challenging students are those who do not readily adopt a systematic approach to software development. These students tend to fall into two categories: (a) The High School “Hackers”; (b) The Haphazard “Never-Evers” High School Hackers do not use (and might not acknowledge the value of) a systematic approach to software development. Haphazard Never-Evers have trouble adhering to the systematic approach they are trying to learn. Providing these students with a one-page summary which includes the steps of a structured software development methodology-enhanced by detailed instructions for writing the source code-is a very effective way to help them learn and adhere to the systematic approach so critical to their success