Teaching strategies in large class programming courses

Teaching programming in higher education has been recognised as extremely challenging for quite some time. The literature attributes the difficulty of learning programming to the development of programming-specific mental models and processes, rather than the memorisation of syntax. This paper explores the core challenges faced by educators teaching programming courses in higher education, particularly in large class environments. A number of strategies and techniques regarding assisting students and managing class time are detailed. The methods have been successfully employed by the authors, and encourage self-reliance and the development of conceptual and strategic programming knowledge in students