In order to develop computer programmings skills: critical thought, problem solving, attention to detail, accuracy and abstract thinking are required. Unfortunately, many novice students at universities within South Africa have not developed such skills in their formative years. This is often due to the fact that many of them have been part of a schooling system that does not teach students how to think critically or how to solve problems. Consequently, they find it difficult to acquire these

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... ills at a postsecondary level and they are often at risk of failing computer programming modules. Furthermore, traditional pedagogies used at post-secondary level often do not provide an opportunity for students to develop the skills needed to write programs. Such pedagogies are often teacher-centric, which do not encourage students to develop critical thinking. This paper aims to demonstrate that adopting an alternative pedagogy, namely social constructivism, can assist students in cultivating the skills needed for computer programming. The pedagogy was applied only to students who were at risk of failing a computer programming module. It encouraged a student-centred environment, where active learning, student collaboration and metacognition were promoted. The data clearly indicates that adopting such pedagogy provides an opportunity for students to improve their computer programing skills. 250 Concluding Remarks This study has shown that adopting social constructivist pedagogy can play an important role in improving the problem solving and computer programming skills of at-risk students. This in turn, improved the pass rate for a computer programming course directed towards novice students. As this was a pilot study, it is envisaged that the pedagogy will be improved and extended to include all students, at the start of the course. It is hoped that by applying this type of teachingand-learning, less students will be at risk of failing this course. This in turn, should equate to an improved pass rate for Development Software I, which means more employable students and a decrease in unemployed young adults. Although this paper describes a move towards constructivist pedagogy, future research will focus on developing teaching-and-learning principles using a design-based research paradigm. These teaching-and-learning principles can then be used to inform the pedagogy for all novice computer programming students.