The impact of using formative assessment in introductory programming on teaching and learning

Abstract

[EN] This study offers an efficient formative assessment strategy that may be used to encourage learning and improve students programming comprehension. In addition to traditional teaching sessions, the strategy offers a series of formative assessment quizzes on fundamental programming, utilising an adaptive model for program comprehension as a learning technique. A non-adaptive and an adaptive assessment, both based on multiple-choice questions, are provided to students enrolled in the 2023 introductory programming course. This study investigated how effectively these assessments assisted students in understanding, learning, and developing a sense of their proficiency in computer programming by introducing common programming errors. We gathered data from a survey that 218 students completed at the end of each quiz. Findings from student surveys and observational techniques show that employing adaptive technique was more likely to motivate students and increase their self-confidence. The results also show that formative assessment can be used to support learning programming in addition to classroom instruction to help students grasp key concepts.