Cognitive Consequences of Programming Instruction: Instruction, Access, and Ability

Increasingly, precollege students receive programming instruction. The avowed purpose of such instruction is typically to teach a computer language such as BASIC as well as to teach problem solving. In this paper, we describe an ideal chain of cognitive accomplishments from programming and examine the cognitive outcomes from a wide range of middle school programming courses. Study of over 500 students in 17 classes reveals that the form of instruction, the access to computers, and the ability of the student influence outcomes from programming instruction. Specifically, exemplary instruction moves students further along the chain of cognitive accomplishments than does typical instruction. Furthermore, both access to computers and general ability are related to progress in typical classrooms. In exemplary classrooms, for medium and high ability students, neither ability nor computer access outside of class is related to programming performance.