The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom

TL;DR

This study explores secondary school teachers' experiences with debugging in programming classes, highlighting the reliance on teacher support and proposing the need for targeted professional development.

Contribution

It introduces the 'hands-up problem' concept, revealing teachers' dependence on student raised hands for debugging support and contrasting strategies based on teacher confidence.

Findings

Teachers rely heavily on student raised hands for debugging support.

More confident teachers employ strategies to mitigate the 'hands-up problem'.

Less confident teachers experience negative impacts due to the reliance on teacher support.

Abstract

Debugging is a vital but challenging skill for beginner programmers to learn. It is also a difficult skill to teach. For secondary school teachers, who may lack time or programming experience, honing students' understanding of debugging can be a daunting task. Despite this, little research has explored their perspectives of debugging. To this end, we investigated secondary teachers' experiences of debugging in the classroom, with a focus on text-based programming. Through thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews, we identified a common reliance on the teacher for debugging support, embodied by many raised hands. We call this phenomenon the "hands-up problem". While more experienced and confident teachers discussed strategies they use to counteract this, less confident teachers discussed the negative consequences of this problem. We recommend further research into debugging-specific pedagogical content knowledge and professional development to help less confident teachers develop approaches for supporting their students with debugging.