Investigating the Under-Usage of Code Decomposition and Reuse Among High School Students: The Case of Functions

Functions can provide substantial benefits for programmers. They offer ways that can be used to simplify a given programming task through decomposition, reusability and abstraction. As observed by the first author, a graduate student and high school computer science (CS) teacher, students do not spontaneously use functions when they are asked to solve a certain task; instead they provide one procedural solution, even in situations where functions can clearly be helpful. This research aims to investigate how and when students use functions, as well as the reasons underlying their decisions whether to use them. This paper presents our ongoing research including some results from a pilot study. For data analysis we use the dual-process theory of human cognition and three related concepts: comfort zone, principle of least effort and cognitive laziness. We discuss how these can be useful in order to better understand the problem at hand.