Examining the Effects of Two Computer Programming Learning Strategies: Self-Explanation versus Reading Questions and Answers

The study described here explored the differential effects of two learning strategies, self-explanation and reading questions and answers, on learning the computer programming language JavaScript. Students' test performance and perceptions of effectiveness toward the two strategies were examine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IAFOR journal of education Vol. 5; no. SI; pp. 69 - 88
Main Author: Lee, Nancy
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: International Academic Forum 16.08.2017
The International Academic Forum
Subjects:
Adolescents
computer language
Computer Science Education
Demonstrations (Educational)
Difficulty Level
High School Students
Independent Study
Instructional Effectiveness
Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Introductory Courses
JavaScript
Learning Strategies
learning strategy
Multimedia Instruction
Performance Factors
Programming
Questioning Techniques
Reading
self-explanation
Student Attitudes
Web Based Instruction
ISSN:2187-0594, 2187-0594
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The study described here explored the differential effects of two learning strategies, self-explanation and reading questions and answers, on learning the computer programming language JavaScript. Students' test performance and perceptions of effectiveness toward the two strategies were examined. An online interactive tutorial instruction implementing worked-examples and multimedia learning principles was developed for this study. Participants were 147 high school students (ages 14 to 18) of a computer introductory course in six periods which were randomly divided into two groups (n = 78; n = 69) of three periods each. The two groups alternated learning strategies to learn five lessons. Students' prerequisite knowledge of XHTML and motivation to learn computer programming languages were measured before starting the tutorial. Students largely expressed their preference toward self-explanation over reading questions and answers. They thought self-explanation incurred much more work yet was more effective. However, the two learning strategies did not have differential effects on students' test performance. The seeming discrepancy arising from students' preferred strategy and their test performance was discussed in the areas of familiar versus new strategy, difficulty of learning materials and testing method, and experimental duration.
ISSN:2187-0594
2187-0594
DOI:10.22492/ije.5.si.03