As a programming novice attempts to attain expertise in programming she must develop adequate mental models and knowledge structures of the programming process. Unfortunately, many of the computerised tools to which novice programmers have access are designed by expert programmers for experts and as such do not meet the needs of novices. Low-level program visualisation tools make explicit the internal workings of program execution and as such can serve as conceptual models onto which novices can assimilate information about programming. This paper discusses the need for such a tool, what features such a tool may include and gives a brief description of an evaluation of a low-level program visualisation tool developed at Deakin University.
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