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Background and Context: Current introductory instruction fails to identify, structure, and sequence the many skills involved in programming. Objective: We proposed a theory which identifies four distinct skills that novices learn incrementally. These skills are tracing, writing syntax, comprehending templates (reusable abstractions of programming knowledge), and writing code with templates. We theorized that explicit instruction of these skills decreases cognitive demand. Method: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study and compared students’ exercise completion rates, error rates, ability to explain code, and engagement when learning to program. We compared material that reflects this theory to more traditional material that does not distinguish between skills. Findings: Teaching skills incrementally resulted in improved completion rate on practice exercises, and decreased error rate and improved understanding of the post-test. Implications: By structuring programming skills such that they can be taught explicitly and incrementally, we can inform instructional design and improve future research on understanding how novice programmers develop understanding. 

One way to teach programming problem solving is to teach explicit, step-by-step strategies. While prior work has shown these to be effective in controlled settings, there has been little work investigating their efficacy in classrooms. We conducted a 5-week case study with 17 students aged 15-18, investigating students' sentiments toward two strategies for debugging and code reuse, students' use of scaffolding to execute these strategies, and associations between students' strategy use and their success at independently writing programs in class. We found that while students reported the strategies to be valuable, many had trouble regulating their choice of strategies, defaulting to ineffective trial and error, even when they knew systematic strategies would be more effective. Students that embraced the debugging strategy completed more features in a game development project, but this association was mediated by other factors, such as reliance on help, strategy self-efficacy, and mastery of the programming language used in the class. These results suggest that teaching of strategies may require more explicit instruction on strategy selection and self-regulation.