Problem solving through effective plan decomposition and composition continues to be exceedingly difficult for novice programmers. This is exacerbated by the fact that these strategies are usually implicit in instruction: students are left to figure out their own problem solving strategies. My research investigates ways to elicit and improve students' plan decomposition and composition strategies.
F.E.V.G. Castro. Investigating Novice Programmers’ Plan Composition Strategies. International Computing Education Research (Omaha, Nebraska, USA. 9-13 August 2015)