Aprendizagem de programação de computadores: dificuldades e ferramentas de suporte

Abstract

Programming learning is known to be a difficult task to many students. Traditional teaching and learning strategies have failed to solve this problem to an acceptable level. Also many computer-based tools have been proposed, but the problem still remains. Many authors have studied the reasons for programming learning difficulties, but we think the lack of good generic problem solving skills is the main cause for many students problems. When problems are more programming oriented the difficulties often increase and students show big difficulties even to create simple algorithms. Our current work is centered around the development of problem solving skills, first for generic problems and later for programming problems. This new environment takes into consideration each student preferential learning style and current problem solving level.