Analysis of the Answering Processes in Split-Paper Testing to Promote Instruction

Abstract

This present study investigates the novice programmers using state transition diagrams, to help teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) in their instruction by visualizing the answering process of students. The data for this study are examination results in Ruby programming. Three state transition diagrams, correct answerers, wrong answerers, and to find stumbling points of wrong answerers, are drawn. The subjects of the experiment are TAs in the Ruby programming course. Results show that the subjects identified the conditions of the students by seeing the state transition diagram. This suggests that the visualizing answering processes of students opens a possibility of promoting instruction for teachers and TAs.