Students' Conceptions of Object-Oriented Programming in the Context of Game Designing in Computing Education: Design of a Ph.D. Research Project to Explore Students' Conceptions in a Long-Term Study

Playing digital games seems to be an important leisure activity of 12 to 19 year olds in Germany: 63% of them stated to play at least several times a week in 2019. Studies show that dealing with game designing can have a positive effect on programming competences. Therefore, it is no wonder that digital games often used as a favorite context for teaching programming. Surprisingly, there is a lack of studies on students' mental models of programming in the context of digital games. This poster presents a Ph.D. research project and its design approach to identify students' conceptions and mental models concerning a specific digital game. As a long-term study, the project shall give an insight into the development of students' conceptions of object-oriented programming (OOP) and their ability to apply learned OOP concepts to digital games (e.g. Tetris™) in introductory classes over time.