The unhappy hamster

Programming results came through: 13 out 27 failed, a lot more should have, including all 1st-year's...
Next chance for them is mid-March.

Damn, 15 weeks of working with them and still it didn't get into their heads. What can we do? How to teach programming to novices ? Any suggestions?

This is how we're teaching it: Java-Hamster-Modell (german only)