Python CS1 as preparation for C++ CS2

How suitable is a Python-based CS1 course as preparation for a C++-based CS2 course? After fifteen years of using C++ for both CS1 and CS2, the Computer Science Department at Michigan State University changed the CS1 course to Python. This paper examines the impact of that change on the second course in the sequence, CS2, which kept C++ as its primary language. We report results on a CS2 class which had a mixture of students who had used either C++ or Python from our CS1 course. The CS2 class covered the same topics as previously, though with some changes, and even gave the same final exam as a previous offering. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare students from the Python group with students from the non-Python group on three outcomes: final exam grade, programming projects scores, and final grade for the course. The main result was that there were no significant differences between the groups for all three outcomes. In addition, multiple regression analysis showed that ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Richard J. Enbody, William F. Punch, Mark McCullen
• Keywords: C++-based CS1 Course, C++-based CS2 Course, Education, Python-based CS1 Course, SIGCSE 2009