{"ID":2878024,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18861","arxiv_id":"2508.18861","title":"The Hands-Up Problem and How to Deal With It: Secondary School Teachers' Experiences of Debugging in the Classroom","abstract":"Debugging is a vital but challenging skill for beginner programmers to learn. It is also a difficult skill to teach. For secondary school teachers, who may lack time or programming experience, honing students' understanding of debugging can be a daunting task. Despite this, little research has explored their perspectives of debugging. To this end, we investigated secondary teachers' experiences of debugging in the classroom, with a focus on text-based programming. Through thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews, we identified a common reliance on the teacher for debugging support, embodied by many raised hands. We call this phenomenon the \"hands-up problem\". While more experienced and confident teachers discussed strategies they use to counteract this, less confident teachers discussed the negative consequences of this problem. We recommend further research into debugging-specific pedagogical content knowledge and professional development to help less confident teachers develop approaches for supporting their students with debugging.","short_abstract":"Debugging is a vital but challenging skill for beginner programmers to learn. It is also a difficult skill to teach. For secondary school teachers, who may lack time or programming experience, honing students' understanding of debugging can be a daunting task. Despite this, little research has explored their perspectiv...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18861","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.18861v3","authors":"[\"Laurie Gale\",\"Sue Sentance\"]","published":"2025-08-26T09:39:22Z","proceeding":"cs.CY","tasks":"[\"cs.CY\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}