Quintin Cutts on Modelling Code Comprehension

It’s all very well getting an AI to write your code for you but neither writing code or reading code are the same as understanding code. So what is going on in novices brains when they learn to actually understand the code they are reading and writing? We spoke to Quintin Cutts from the University of Glasgow about his paper co-authored with Maria Kallia on Introducing Modelling and Code Comprehension from the First Days of an Introductory Programming Class in published in CEP ’23: Proceedings of 7th Conference on Computing Education Practice, from the abstract:

An approach to code comprehension in an introductory programming class is presented, drawing on the Text Surface, Functional and Machine aspects of Schulte’s Block Model, and emphasising programming as a modelling activity involving problem and machine domains. To visually connect the domains and a program, a key diagram conceptualising the three aspects lies at the approach’s heart, alongside instructional exposition and exercises, which are all presented. Students find the approach challenging initially, but most recognise its value later, and identify, unexpectedly, the value of the approach for problem decomposition, planning and coding

Show notes and transcript for this podcast can be found at uki-sigcse.acm.org/2025/09/03/episode-2