Development of a Checklist Tool for Teaching Problem-Solving Skills

Hillary Dawkins, Grant Douglas, Kevin Glover-Netherton, David Hudec, Sean Lunt, Dalton Polhill, Mostafa Rashed, Matthew Sampson, Alliyya Mohammed, James Mosley, Rhys Young, Judi McCuaig

Abstract: Problem solving is a critical skill for computer science. However, the complexity and overhead of most programming tasks make problem solving difficult to explicitly teach. Previous studies describe explicit instruction of problem-solving strategies, but provide few details about how the strategies have been developed. We describe the development of a checklist tool that guides students in solving general programming tasks. The tool was developed by observing problem-solving strategies used by advanced computer science students in practice. We believe that the tool will provide a basis for explicit problem-solving instruction for novice programmers.