A CS1 Spatial Skills Intervention and the Impact on Introductory Programming Abilities

Authors

Ryan Bockmon, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Stephen Cooper, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
William Koperski, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Jonathan Gratch, Texas Woman’s University, DentonFollow
Sheryl Sorby, University of CincinnatiFollow
Mohsen Dorodchi, University of North Carolina at CharlotteFollow

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

SIGCSE ’20, March 11–14, 2020, Portland, OR, USA

https://doi.org/10.1145/3328778.3366829

Comments

2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s)

Abstract

This paper discusses the results of replicating and extending a study performed by Cooper et al. examining the relationship between students’ spatial skills and their success in learning to program. Whereas Cooper et al. worked with high school students participat- ing in a summer program, we worked with college students taking an introductory computing course. Like Cooper et al.’s study, we saw a correlation between a student’s spatial skills and their success in learning computing. More significantly, we saw that after apply- ing an intervention to teach spatial skills, students demonstrated improved performance both on a standard spatial skills assessment as well as on a CS content instrument. We also saw a correlation between students’ enjoyment in computing and improved perfor- mance both on a standard spatial skills assessment and on a CS content instrument, a result not observed by Cooper et al.