The article contains the results of the study conducted in order to discover the most effective ways of developing students' programming abilities with the means of non-programming disciplines and activities. The authors observe the learning practices and habits employed by students with highly developed programming abilities and compare these…

The introduction of an open-ended MicroWorlds based assignment in a pre-service teaching degree produced interesting results. Students engaged with the task at very high levels and produced work of high quality; so much so that marking trends were reversed. This paper explores the design and implementation of the task and how for many students it…