A purpose-first theory of transfer through programming in a general education computing course

Hope has dimmed that programming knowledge transfers to learning of general problem-solving strategies. Instead, today’s computing education researchers seek to understand how knowledge gained in learning one programming language might transfer to another programming context. We hypothesize that the motivation to learn programming influences knowledge transfer. In our work, we explore what knowledge transfers for students who are studying computing as a general education topic, i.e., not with the goal of becoming software professionals. Our students include future end-user programmers and conversational programmers who are studying programming in order to improve their ability to communicate with professional programmers. We use the structure-behavior-function (SBF) model as a theoretical framework to suggest that transfer may be occurring at the functional level, rather than the structural or behavioral level. We show evidence that is congruent with this theory of transfer, from a teaspoon language to a block-based programming language.