The choice of the optimal programming language for teaching students of IT specialties the basics of programming at the universities has been the subject of heated debate over the past decades. It is important to focus on modern and significant criteria while choosing a programming language for the introductory course. After analyzing the arguments put forward by teachers in favor of the use of a particular language, as well as the criteria for choosing a language proposed by researchers, a list of the nineteen most frequently called criteria was compiled. Some regional differences in the approaches to the choice of programming languages and the significance of the criteria have been identified. Considering the specifics of the IT sector in Ukraine, based on the study of literature and authors' experience in teaching the basics of programming, a rating of the criteria for choosing the first language was formed. The rating makes it possible to select an optimal programming language, based on the significance of various criteria, taking into account the specific conditions of a particular university.
The problem of choosing the first programming language for teaching IT students in universities is very acute nowadays and has caused heated debates over the past decades. Teachers are constantly forced to find a compromise between the motivation of students, their desire to acquire knowledge and skills sufficient to begin practical work as soon as possible, and the need to learn the basic concepts of programming in the form, most accessible for students. The successfully acquired introductory programming course forms the foundation for the effective study of subsequent courses and the mastery of their specialty, similar to the fact that the timeliness of perception of the material and success in studying other subjects depend on mastering the native language in the elementary school. Conversely, the excessive complexity of learning an introductory course can lead to a drop in motivation and low learning outcomes in general.
Along with a large number of works in which the authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using specific programming languages in the introductory course, great attention is paid in publications to the analysis of the criteria for choosing the first language for instruction.
During this project, we considered the works of authors from different countries,
published over the past 15 years. The analysis of works [
The revealed variety of approaches in the initial teaching of programming with the use of a particular language necessitated a comprehensive analysis of the criteria, taking into account their importance in the final choice in a particular university. In addition, in recent years, we can state a change in emphasis in assessing the significance of the criteria for choosing the first language. Thus, since the analyzed researches mainly considered the regional characteristics of various countries and continents, the criteria proposed in them need to be adapted to the situation in Ukraine, in particular.
The purpose of the work is to analyze and rank criteria of the first programming languages for students of IT specialties that can help to identify the optimal programming language for teaching in universities of Ukraine. 3
To accomplish the task, first, we collected and systematized all the criteria identified
in publications [
Further, we formed a rating of the criteria for choosing the first programming language depending on the frequency of references in publications. We combined this rating with the rating which we had compiled based on many years of experience teaching the basics of programming in Ukrainian universities, taking into account the traditions of IT education in Ukraine. The most important differences between these two ratings are, in our opinion, the higher value of the criteria for ease of transition to other programming languages and the presence of all the basic programming constructions in the selected language. We adjusted both ratings to a common scale and the average value for each criterion was determined. The result is presented in the form of a diagram in Fig. 1.
Various criteria in the obtained rating have a different degree of objectivity of their values. For example, one can objectively assess the demand in the labor market by analyzing the regional labor market. At the same time, the ease of learning basic concepts depends on the personal perception of teachers, and on the initial preparation of students, which is very difficult to predict.
Let us consider the criteria for choosing a programming language. The ease of learning the basic concepts is the key to successful mastery of course material and therefore is one of the most significant criteria for choosing a language. Most researchers emphasize the importance of this criterion in their publications.
The most important difference between our rating and one compiled from the literature is the higher value of the ease of transition to other programming languages and the presence of all the basic programming constructions in the language. In our opinion, the latter is an essential criterion. Traditionally, the introductory course deals with: input-output; branching; loops; one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays; pointers; strings; structures; file streams. Not all nowadays-common programming languages have basic constructs in their arsenal. For example, C# has no pointers; Java has no pointers and structures [22].
The recent proliferation of dual education puts forward its demands. From the very beginning of their studies, students should learn what they could use in their future activities. This affects the high importance indicators of the demand in the labor market and the ease of transition to other programming languages. The latter is also relevant for the successful mastering of subsequent courses.
The criterion of the cost of a compiler for a programming language for students is significant because Ukrainian students usually use free compilers. A variety of educational materials widely represent all currently popular programming languages on the Internet, thus the criterion of availability of textbooks is largely fulfilled. One can say the same about the ease of use of an integrated development environment and good debugging tools since developers of popular programming languages present many possibilities for their users.
Support for object-oriented programming is not the primary criterion for learning the basics of programming. However, it is of great importance for the further course "Object-oriented programming", since it allows using the same language in both courses. Criterion the structure of degree demands the consistency of the use of a given language in the framework of the specialty curriculum. The material taught in subsequent courses should be a logical continuation of what people learned at the beginning.
Criterion the reasonable financial costs of creating a learning environment means the costs of retraining lecturers for teaching a new language; expenses for the development of an educational and methodical complex; availability of technical capabilities to install and maintain the necessary software.
A somewhat ambiguous criterion is the existence of online communities in which novice programmers can ask for assistance. Sometimes, students receive a ready-made solution and rewrite it, without delving into its essence. In addition, this solution can use constructions not covered by the task, and they confuse the novice even more.
Analysis of the criteria identified in the publications showed that the importance of some of the criteria in them was exaggerated. For example, the presence or absence of extensions and libraries, as a rule, cannot have a significant impact on the choice of language. The supporting web development capabilities also have a low level of significance, since the basics of programming are usually not related to web development. Due to the availability of online compilers, platform independence cannot be the determining factor for choosing a language. Our experience shows that visual programming does not affect the effectiveness of the course, but on the contrary, at the initial stage, can make it difficult to understand the educational material and even confuse the novice student. 5
The paper analyzes the criteria and arguments used when choosing a programming language for an introductory programming course at universities for students of IT specialties. We compiled a rating of the nineteen most popular criteria based on the works of different researchers and on our experience of teaching the basics of programming, taking into account Ukrainian IT education specifics.
The composed rating helps to make a choice of a programming language, based on the importance of various criteria inherent in one or another programming language under the prevailing conditions of the course taught. For its practical use, the values obtained can be taken as coefficients for comparative evaluation of various languages.
It can be argued that the illustrated approach and the formed rating can be used not only for the introductory programming course but also for other training courses taking into account the specifics of each of them when teaching IT students in universities.