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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18861 |
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Table of 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.