An Exploration of Factors Impacting Middle School Students' Attitudes Toward Computer Programming

Computer programming is becoming an essential skill for young students regardless of their education or career goals. Therefore, for students to develop and for educators and researchers to accurately measure self-efficacy in and value for programming is important. Although student motivation in sub...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computers in the schools Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 19 - 35
Main Authors: Akcaoglu, Mete, Rosenberg, Joshua M., Hodges, Charles B., Hilpert, Jonathan C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York Routledge 2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Computer programming
Computer Science Education
Computers
gender
Gender Differences
Girls
interest
Measurement Techniques
Middle School Students
Middle Schools
Motivation
Performance Factors
Predictor Variables
Pretesting
Programming
Rural Schools
Self Efficacy
Student Attitudes
Student Motivation
Surveys
utility value
Value Judgment
ISSN:0738-0569, 1528-7033
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Computer programming is becoming an essential skill for young students regardless of their education or career goals. Therefore, for students to develop and for educators and researchers to accurately measure self-efficacy in and value for programming is important. Although student motivation in subject matter can be measured using self-report surveys, these types of instruments are prone to error due to inherent biases. In this quasi-experimental and cross-sectional study, we examined whether using a computer programming pretest before taking a perception survey (i.e., providing examples of the key concept in the survey beforehand) had an impact on students' self-reported self-efficacy and utility value, thus helping collect more accurate data. Results showed no significant difference on self-efficacy and value scores between those who received a pretest and those who did not. In further analysis, however, it was found that pretest performance was positively correlated with self-efficacy and value. In addition, boys reported significantly higher self-efficacy and value than girls, confirming gender disparity outlined in previous research. An exploratory, but important, finding was that there was an interaction between gender and test performance for the self-efficacy and utility value. While boys' who had high pretest scores also reported higher levels of self-efficacy and utility value, it was the opposite for girls.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0738-0569
1528-7033
DOI:10.1080/07380569.2021.1882209