Deep and surface structural metacognitive abilities of the first year students of Informatics

Abstract

The results of testing the algorithmic skills of the first year students of Informatics of the University of Debrecen is the main concern of this article. It was found that, in general, the students arriving from high schools have not developed algorithmic skills and have false view about Information and Computer Sciences. The most devastating results arrived from those students who passed middle level graduation exams in Informatics. They are those students who have only developed surface structural metacognitive methods, and have not developed deep structural metacognitive methods, which are needed to solve programming tasks.