Fig No 12: Phenomena caused by different abstraction levels

The main element in the model is the level of abstraction reached by the research subjects in their Algorithmic Thinking. Note that the arrow labeled “Abstraction level of Algorithmic Thinking” does not represent a scale of intervals, but only an ordinal scale of different levels, that lead to or are expressed in the presented phenomena. Again we stress that since “high” and “low” in relation to abstraction levels are relative terms, a “low” level of abstraction here means a level that is insufficient, since it creates difficulties when dealing with algorithms in general and problem solving in particular. By contrast, a “high” level of abstraction is the level considered “good” by computer science experts, and the level that should be aimed for in their opinion.The pupils did develop mental structures that indicate a high level of abstraction, but these structures were not sufficiently mature and the dominant structures were rather those linked to a low level of abstraction. If we refer to the action-process-object model, then we can say that these pupils developed the potential to relate to Algorithmic Thinking, but in fact their thinking was mainly concrete and firmly rooted in the programming context.