An investigation of environments for teaching introductory object-oriented (OO) programming in Java

This research investigates programming environments designed specifically for teaching introductory object-oriented (OO) programming in Java. My goal is to identify features of those environments that best support learning to program in Java. I am particularly interested in identifying features that: support the acquisition of procedural programming knowledge (e.g., knowing how to write a class declaration); support the acquisition of conceptual programming knowledge (e.g., knowing what data abstraction is); support the transition to a professional programming environment (e.g., Eclipse). Once I have identified those features that best support knowledge acquisition and change of environment, I intend to develop a model for an introductory environment for teaching Java programming that incorporates those features and is extensible to other object-oriented languages