The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom
This addresses a gap in understanding how secondary teachers, who may lack time or experience, manage debugging challenges in the classroom, though it is incremental as it focuses on perspectives rather than new methods.
The study investigated secondary school teachers' experiences with debugging in programming classrooms, identifying a common reliance on teacher support known as the 'hands-up problem', where less confident teachers struggle with negative consequences while more experienced ones use strategies to counteract it.
Debugging is a vital but challenging skill for beginner programmers to learn. It is also a difficult skill to teach. For secondary school teachers, who may lack time or programming experience, honing students' understanding of debugging can be a daunting task. Despite this, little research has explored their perspectives of debugging. To this end, we investigated secondary teachers' experiences of debugging in the classroom, with a focus on text-based programming. Through thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews, we identified a common reliance on the teacher for debugging support, embodied by many raised hands. We call this phenomenon the "hands-up problem". While more experienced and confident teachers discussed strategies they use to counteract this, less confident teachers discussed the negative consequences of this problem. We recommend further research into debugging-specific pedagogical content knowledge and professional development to help less confident teachers develop approaches for supporting their students with debugging.