The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866910088928690176 |
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| author | Gale, Laurie Sentance, Sue |
| author_facet | Gale, Laurie Sentance, Sue |
| contents | 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. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_18861 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom Gale, Laurie Sentance, Sue Computers and Society 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. |
| title | The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom |
| topic | Computers and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18861 |