Contribution to Teaching Programming Based on “Object-First” Style at College of Polytechnics Jihlava

There are several different approaches to teaching programming, based on programming styles. A concept “first the object-oriented style, then the other one” known as “object-first” is currently being promoted by a number of technical colleges. The reasons originate from the practical area. Also the teaching of programming at the College of Polytechnics Jihlava (COPJ) is being switched from the “structural-then-object” style of programming to the “object-first” style. After the second run, the results achieved by students do not seem (very) good. This can be confirmed from the courses’ feedback. It seems that the students are puzzled and their skills are poorer. Therefore, we decided to examine the results achieved by students and their opinion on the “object-first” style especially. This survey was carried out after the completion of the course with “object-first” teaching and at the beginning of the course with “structural” teaching. We are interested in skills in object-oriented programming and also in structural programming, but especially skills at the beginning of study at COPJ and the type of completed high school. We addressed our students attending the course of “structural programming”. The third run of this teaching approach started. In this paper we introduce the first survey results. Even though the number of respondents is not big, the statistic results are significant within the College.