Helping to provide adaptive feedback to novice programmers: a framework to assist the Teachers

Feedback is an important resource in the teaching-learning process, particularly in problem-solving activities within introductory programming courses. It has been considered an essential scaffolding element for the student’s learning process. In such a context, teaching assistants are often responsible for providing feedback to novice students. However, sometimes, these assistants do not have a sufficient and appropriate understanding of the relevant aspects of providing this type of feedback. To mitigate this issue, we constructed a framework for providing adaptive feedback, covering different approaches and feedback resources in problem-solving by novice programmers. The body of knowledge represented in the proposed framework is helpful to be presented to TAs, who should use it to guide their pedagogical decision-making process regarding adaptive feedback in synthesis and analysis. To this end, we developed the framework based on two main stages: (1) conception and (2) brainstorming and evolution. The conception stage, which gave rise to the first version of the framework, included an ad hoc literature review of feedback provision. Hence, we conducted a brainstorming with introductory programming teachers to analyze the framework in terms of coverage and its potential to enable the teaching assistants to provide adaptive feedback. Afterward, because of the brainstorming, we evolved the framework into one more version, resulting in categories and subcategories encompassing different approaches and resources.