Abstract
Computing scientists generally agree that abstract thinking is a crucial component for practicing computer science.</p> <p>We report on a three-year longitudinal study to confirm the hypothesis that general abstraction ability has a positive impact on performance in computing science.</p> <p>Abstraction ability is operationalized as stages of cognitive development for which validated tests exist. Performance in computing science is operationalized as grade in the final assessment of ten courses of a bachelor's degree programme in computing science. The validity of the operationalizations is discussed.</p> <p>We have investigated the positive impact overall, for two groupings of courses (a content-based grouping and a grouping based on SOLO levels of the courses' intended learning outcome), and for each individual course.</p> <p>Surprisingly, our study shows that there is hardly any correlation between stage of cognitive development (abstraction ability) and final grades in standard CS courses, neither for the various group-ings, nor for the individual courses. Possible explanations are discussed.
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