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On the (Mis) Understanding of the "this" Reference

Published: 08 March 2017 Publication History

Abstract

The paper presents research conducted with high school (HS) students (N=86) learning object-oriented programming (OOP) and computer science HS teachers (N=48). The focus was on students' and teachers' understanding of the this reference. Proper conceptualization of this indicates an understanding of objects in general and of the current object, and it involves various aspects of programming variants. Students' preferences as to the use of the this reference were also examined. Findings revealed a lack of understanding of both the implication and the implementation of this; only 45% of the students expressed understanding of when we must use this; only 60% expressed understanding of when not to use this, and only 24% expressed clear understanding in their definition of this. Even correct answers do not necessarily indicate conceptual understanding, rather a repetition of definitions or programming habits, or a reliance on operative aspects of the implementation. The teachers expressed a considerable lack of clarity in accurately characterizing the correctness of students' answers.

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Cited By

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  • (2020)Software Analytics to Support Students in Object-Oriented Programming Tasks: An Empirical StudyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2020.30101728(132171-132187)Online publication date: 2020
  • (2020)Understanding the “this” reference in object oriented programming: Misconceptions, conceptions, and teaching recommendationsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-020-10265-6Online publication date: 23-Jul-2020
  • (2020)Learners’ Alternative ConceptionsGuide to Teaching Computer Science10.1007/978-3-030-39360-1_9(169-180)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2020
  • Show More Cited By

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cover image ACM Conferences
SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
March 2017
838 pages
ISBN:9781450346986
DOI:10.1145/3017680
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]

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Published: 08 March 2017

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Author Tags

  1. computer science education
  2. object-oriented programming
  3. this reference

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SIGCSE '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 105 of 348 submissions, 30%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 1,787 of 5,146 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2020)Software Analytics to Support Students in Object-Oriented Programming Tasks: An Empirical StudyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2020.30101728(132171-132187)Online publication date: 2020
  • (2020)Understanding the “this” reference in object oriented programming: Misconceptions, conceptions, and teaching recommendationsEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-020-10265-6Online publication date: 23-Jul-2020
  • (2020)Learners’ Alternative ConceptionsGuide to Teaching Computer Science10.1007/978-3-030-39360-1_9(169-180)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2020
  • (2020)Research in Computer Science EducationGuide to Teaching Computer Science10.1007/978-3-030-39360-1_7(119-142)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2020
  • (2019)On the Students’ Misconceptions in Object-Oriented Language ConstructsHigher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online10.1007/978-3-030-31284-8_8(97-112)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2019
  • (2018)A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Students’ Perceptions and Misconceptions Regards the Current Object “this”Informatics in Schools. Fundamentals of Computer Science and Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-02750-6_7(84-100)Online publication date: 11-Oct-2018

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