A result that may be of use in designing Carpentry lessons (from
https://doi.org/10.1145/3141880.3141898):
Intuition suggests that problems from a familiar context should be
easier to solve than the same problems described using an unfamiliar
domain. However, prior work on contextualized programming problems has
found little evidence to support this hypothesis. In this paper, we
extend this work by exploring the use of a particular familiar
context: problem domains used earlier in an introductory programming
course. We conduct a crossover design study in a large introductory
programming course to compare problems with and without context
related to previous coursework. Our results suggest that any advantage
conveyed by a familiar context is dominated by other factors, such as
the complexity of terminology used in the description, the length of
the problem description, and the availability of examples. This
suggests that educators should focus on simplicity of language and the
development of examples, rather than seeking contexts that may aid in
understanding problems.
Cheers,
Greg
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