Data Analysis of Guided Expert Interviews

The goal of the guided interviews with experts was to identify programming competencies expected from novice learners along with factors contributing to or hindering student learning in introductory programming courses. In this chapter, the analysis of data gathered from interviews with experienced educators is presented. As a prerequisite for this analysis, the verbalized responses had to be pre-processed, and thus transcribed into written form. Transcription guidelines, the developed transcription system, and the actual transcription process applied to this work are introduced. Next, the analysis of the written interview protocols through summarizing structuring content analysis is outlined. This step-by-step process is characterized by omission, generalization, and a first and second reduction including clustering, abstraction, and integration. Finally, the quality criteria for the analysis are summarized.