Novice programmers, who have yet to form effective mental models of the domain, often experience high cognitive load, low confidence, and high anxiety, negatively affecting learning and retention rates. These cognitive and affective limitations pose an instructional challenge. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a whole-task…

Suggests there must be educational reform deliberately engineered to enable schools to effectively use instructional technology. Discusses principles of instruction that facilitate learning; the need for effective instructional authoring tools; and the need for teacher support within the system to encourage innovation. (LRW)