Pascal and High School Students: A Study of Errors

A screening test was given to three classes of high school students, who were just completing introductory semester-long courses in Pascal. These tests were graded, and subsequently thirty-five students were given detailed clinical interviews. These interviews showed that errors were made with essentially every Pascal construct. Over half the students were classified as having major difficulties—fewer than 10 percent had no difficulties. The errors noted are discussed in detail in this article. A major finding is that the students attribute to the computer the reasoning power of an average person. The article also speculates about how difficult it might be to remediate the errors found, and concludes with an outline of future work.