skip to main content
10.1145/1734263.1734437acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagessigcseConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Performance of python CS1 students in mid-level non-python CS courses

Published: 10 March 2010 Publication History

Abstract

If you change the CS1 language to Python, what is the impact on the rest of the curriculum? In earlier work we examined the impact of changing CS1 from C++ to Python while leaving CS2 in C++. We found that Python-prepared CS1 students fared no differently in CS2 than students whose CS1 course was in C++, even though CS2 was taught in C++ and covered the same topics as in previous years. Was that an anomaly? What happens in the next tier of courses? When our CS1 was first changed to Python there were many students who had taken CS1 in C++ still in the system. The result is that there is a cadre of students with either CS1 in Python or CS1 in C++ moving together through our curriculum. This one-time occurrence is an opportunity to study the students with many variables fixed. Our next tier of courses is a C-based computer organization course, a C++ based object-oriented software design course, and a data structures course. We found that the students who started with Python fared as well as the CS1 C++ students. As before, the best predictor of performance was their college GPA. Python versus C++ CS1 preparation was not a predictor of performance in any course. We conclude again that in our C++ based curriculum changing CS1 to Python had no negative impact on student performance and did not require any significant change in those subsequent courses.

References

[1]
ABET. Criteria for accrediting computing programs: 2010-2011 cycles. http://www.abet.org, 2009.
[2]
R. J. Enbody, W. F. Punch, and M. McCullen. Python cs1 as preparation for c++ cs2. In SIGCSE '09: Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 116--120, New York, NY, USA, 2009. ACM.
[3]
N. Jukic and P. Gray. Using real data to invigorate student learning. SIGCSE Bull., 40(2):6--10, 2008.
[4]
R. P. Loui. In praise of scripting: Real programming pragmatism. IEEE Computer, 41(7):22--26, July 2008.
[5]
J. D. Oldham. What happens after python in cs1? J. Comput. Small Coll., 20(6):7--13, 2005.
[6]
G. project. R statistical language.
[7]
W. F. Punch and R. J. Enbody. The Practice of Computing Using Python. Pearson: Addison-Wesley, New York, 2010.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Error Detection and Correction Techniques using Python: An Exemplar Approach2024 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications Theme: Healthcare and Internet of Things (AIMLA)10.1109/AIMLA59606.2024.10531522(1-5)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Core competencies of K-12 computer science education from the perspectives of college faculties and K-12 teachersInternational Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools10.21585/ijcses.v6i2.1616:2Online publication date: 19-Oct-2023
  • (2023)Visual vs. Textual Programming Languages in CS0.5Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569722(32-38)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2010
618 pages
ISBN:9781450300063
DOI:10.1145/1734263
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 10 March 2010

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. cs1
  2. curriculum
  3. introduction to programming
  4. python

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Conference

SIGCSE10
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,787 of 5,146 submissions, 35%

Upcoming Conference

SIGCSE TS 2025
The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
February 26 - March 1, 2025
Pittsburgh , PA , USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)29
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
Reflects downloads up to 17 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Error Detection and Correction Techniques using Python: An Exemplar Approach2024 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications Theme: Healthcare and Internet of Things (AIMLA)10.1109/AIMLA59606.2024.10531522(1-5)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2024
  • (2023)Core competencies of K-12 computer science education from the perspectives of college faculties and K-12 teachersInternational Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools10.21585/ijcses.v6i2.1616:2Online publication date: 19-Oct-2023
  • (2023)Visual vs. Textual Programming Languages in CS0.5Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3545945.3569722(32-38)Online publication date: 2-Mar-2023
  • (2022)Good Students are Good Students Student Achievement with Visual versus Textual Programming2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962693(1-9)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
  • (2022)Investigating the impact of adopting Python and C languages for introductory engineering programming coursesComputer Applications in Engineering Education10.1002/cae.2257031:1(47-62)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2022
  • (2019)Novice Programmer to New-Age Application Developer: What Makes Python their First Choice?2019 10th International Conference on Computing, Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT)10.1109/ICCCNT45670.2019.8944583(1-7)Online publication date: Jul-2019
  • (2018)Python Versus C++Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3159450.3160586(86-91)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2018
  • (2018)A Controlled Experiment on Python vs C for an Introductory Programming CourseACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/315289418:3(1-16)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2018
  • (2016)Some Trouble with TransparencyProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research10.1145/2960310.2960327(133-141)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2016
  • (2015)Learning Object-Oriented Programming in PythonProceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2808006.2808017(59-64)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2015
  • Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media