An Investigation Into The Relationship Between The Level Of Cognitive Maturity And The Types Of Errors Made By Students In A Computer Programming Course

Computer Programming forms the basis from which most students in the IS/IT discipline launch themselves into further endeavors in the discipline. However, statistical analysis of students’ per-formances in programming related assessment tasks reveals that the mastery of computer pro-gramming skills is not easily acquired. This assertion is supported by the reports of high failure rates in programming courses at several academic institutes. This trend is also confirmed at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) where programming related assessments have resulted in failure rates as high as 50%. A theoretical framework to determine errors made by students at the microscopic level was constructed and used to perform an analysis of student responses in a pro-gramming assessment tasks. A qualitative theoretical framework was used to determine the fre-quency of structural, executive and arbitrary errors. In this initial inquisition, proficiency in four programming foundational concepts was tested using the proposed framework. Results indicate a predominance of high level errors (structural) in these foundational areas of programming.