Background and Context: Some skills taught in introductory programming courses are categorized into 1) explaining code, 2) arranging lines of code in correct sequence, 3) tracing through the execution of a program, and 4) writing code from scratch. Objective: Knowing if a programming skill is a prerequisite to another would benefit teachers in properly planning the course and structuring the order in which they present activities relating to new content. Prior attempts to establish a skill hierarchy have suffered from methodological issues. Method: In this study, we used the conviction measure from association rule mining to perform pair-wise comparisons of five skills: Write, Trace, Reverse trace, Sequence, and Explain code. We used the data from four exams with more than 600 participants where students solved programming assignments of different skills for several programming topics. Findings: Our findings matched the previous finding that tracing is a prerequisite for students to learn to write code. Contradicting the previous claims, our analysis showed that using the mean threshold writing code is a prerequisite to explaining code. However, there is no clear relationship when we change the threshold to the median. Unlike prior work, we did not find a clear prerequisite relationship between sequencing code and writing or explaining code. Implications: Our research can help instructors by systematically arranging the skills students exercise when encountering a new topic. The goal is to help instructors properly teach and assess programming in a fashion most effective for learning by leveraging the relationship between skills.

翻译：背景与语境：在入门编程课程中教授的部分技能可分为以下几类：1)解释代码，2)按正确顺序排列代码行，3)跟踪程序执行过程，4)从零开始编写代码。研究目标：明确编程技能之间是否存在先决关系，将有助于教师合理规划课程并构建与新知内容相关活动的呈现顺序。先前建立技能层次结构的尝试存在方法论缺陷。研究方法：本研究采用关联规则挖掘中的置信度度量，对五项技能进行成对比较：编写代码、正向追踪、反向追踪、代码排序和解释代码。我们分析了四次考试数据（参与者超过600人），其中学生针对多个编程主题完成了不同技能类型的编程任务。研究发现：我们的结果与先前研究一致，即代码追踪是学习编写代码的先决条件。与先前结论相矛盾的是，分析表明采用均值阈值时，编写代码是解释代码的先决条件；但将阈值调整为中位数后，二者未呈现明确关系。与既有研究不同，我们未发现代码排序与编写/解释代码之间存在清晰的先决关系。研究意义：本研究通过系统化安排学生接触新主题时需训练的技能序列，为教学者提供支持。其目标在于帮助教师基于技能间的关联关系，以最高效的学习方式开展编程教学与评估。