Teaching programming and problem solving to CS2 students using think-alouds

Many studies have shown that students often face difficulty in applying programming concepts to design a program that solves a given task. To impart better problem solving skills a number of pedagogical approaches have been presented in the literature. However, most of these approaches provide a general strategy of problem solving. But in reality problem solving is a skill that is developed with experience over a period of time. In this paper, we present a pedagogical approach to teach problem solving using think-alouds. In a think-aloud problem solving approach students learn the skill of problem solving by closely observing an 'experienced programmer. We used this approach in a CS2 class and our evaluation results show that think-aloud problem solving is an extremely effective pedagogical technique, particularly for female students.