Program Comprehension Technique in Teaching and Leaning: A Cognitive Perspective

Abstract

In studying about programming languages, the important part is to understand the language itself. Learners need to be able to comprehend a program that is completed with syntax, semantic and program flow. Most learners especially the novices face a lot of problems when trying to learn a program. Many studies have been conducted to observe the process on how learners understand the program source code. Usually, the study of program comprehension focuses on the combination of two important characteristics: theories and tools. The theories that provide how to improve program comprehension and tools that can implement the theories. These two characteristics will change the way programmers understand the program codes. Many researchers review some of the key theories of program comprehension and discusses on how these theories are related to tools that support it. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the evolution of the three predominant approaches of program comprehension in the aspect of cognitive theory which are: bottom-up, top-down and the integrated approach. This study also considers the important of cognitive model to make the effective learning process. Therefore, this paper can provide the intuitive environment for the process of learning especially for novice learners.