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Abstract - This study was influenced by the University of Trinidad & Tobago first year students' perception that programming is difficult. The study started with researching publications on problems faced when teaching an introductory programming course which represented the lecturers' perspective. Interviews with some 1st year programming students and analyses of the solutions submitted by these students represented the students' perspective. The approach being proposed is teaching the programming language as teaching a foreign language. The issue of problem solving in programming was separated from programming. This was dealt with prior to programming through using Input Processing Output (IPO) table. The results obtained from using this approach for six years are shown.
Keywords: Introductory programming, problem-solving, foreign language, syntax, logic
1Introduction
The University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT) was established in 2004 and consists of three main campuses. UTT is the most recent university in Trinidad and thus, must prove itself credible. A new university, a new approach, a new cure, a different solution, a new recipe, all share one thing in common, it must be given a chance. This requires a lot of marketing, demonstrating, and sampling to get the attention of people who are comfortable with the existing approach. The same applies to teaching using new techniques.
1.1Motivation for study
The existing and accepted approach to teaching general courses in the school system is reading, explaining, understanding and imparting. The only exceptions to this would be teaching Mathematics and Programming which requires the additional skill of problem solving. The teaching of Mathematics starts at an early age so students have been exposed and experienced the teaching of Mathematics. Even though teaching of Mathematics starts at an early age, a lot of students dislike Mathematics. Scarpello (2007) reports that seventy-five percent of Americans stop the study of mathematics and stay away from many careers or anything that related to mathematics. Students believe that Mathematics is required for programming so their opinion of Mathematics is reflected in programming. Students find any degree course that involved programming difficult to learn (Kunkle & Allen, 2016, Daly 2011, Kaplan 2010). The uneasy feeling by students such as panic, lost, clueless and helplessness when working on something related to mathematics tends to affect performance (Wondimu et al,...