Novice programmers often struggle with problem solving due to the high cognitive loads they face. Furthermore, many introductory programming courses do not explicitly teach it, assuming that problem solving skills are acquired along the way. In this paper, we present 'PCDIT', a non-linear problem solving framework that provides scaffolding to guide novice programmers through the process of transforming a problem specification into an implemented and tested solution for an imperative programming language. A key distinction of PCDIT is its focus on developing concrete cases for the problem early without actually writing test code: students are instead encouraged to think about the abstract steps from inputs to outputs before mapping anything down to syntax. We reflect on our experience of teaching an introductory programming course using PCDIT, and report the results of a survey that suggests it helped students to break down challenging problems, organise their thoughts, and reach working solutions.

中文翻译：

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语法前的步骤：帮助新手程序员使用 PCDIT 框架解决问题

由于他们面临的高认知负荷，新手程序员经常在解决问题上挣扎。此外，许多介绍性编程课程没有明确教授它，假设在此过程中获得了解决问题的技能。在本文中，我们介绍了“PCDIT”，这是一种非线性问题解决框架，它提供了脚手架来指导新手程序员完成将问题规范转换为命令式编程语言的已实现和测试解决方案的过程。PCDIT 的一个关键区别在于它专注于尽早为问题开发具体案例，而无需实际编写测试代码：相反，鼓励学生在将任何内容映射到语法之前考虑从输入到输出的抽象步骤。