This study examines self-reported programming difficulties among 247 pre-service mathematics teachers in Algeria. By using a context-adapted Arabic questionnaire, the paper found that difficulties were better described as conceptual and application/debugging-related patterns. Debugging, theory-to-practice transfer, and coding frustration were the main challenges. The findings point to guided practice, explicit debugging support, mathematics-linked tasks, and differentiated support. The study contributes to teacher education and programming education research by highlighting how programming difficulties in non-specialist mathematics teacher education are shaped more by application and debugging challenges than by conceptual understanding alone.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.