Maria Knobelsdorf, University of Dortmund, Germany - Didaktik der ...

Is Self-Efficacy in Programming Decreasing with the Level
of Programming Skills?
Michail N. Giannakos*
Norwegian University of Science and
Technology (NTNU)
Dep. of Computer & Information Science
Trondheim, NO-7491, Norway
michail.giannakos@idi.ntnu.no
ABSTRACT
In this study, variables from the Unified Theory of Acceptance
and Use of Technology and Social Cognitive Theory were chosen
as important factors in students’ behavior and attitude towards
Computer Science Education (CSE). This hybrid framework aims
to measure the level of the selected key variables on CSE and
identify potential differences among our different groups. The
three different groups are consisted of students from: (1) programming
courses of Greek Lyceums, (2) computer science
courses at German Gymnasiums and (3) at the Department of
Informatics (freshmen) at the Ionian University, Greece. We
asked the three different groups of students to complete a questionnaire
that was derived from this combination of the prior
theories. The results revealed several differences in the measured
variables, e.g. the freshmen who should have the highest programming
competencies compared to the other two groups expressed
the lowest degree of self-efficacy. The overall outcomes
are expected to contribute to the understanding of students’ likelihood
to pursue computing related careers and promote the acceptance
of CSE.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
K.3.2 [Computer and Information Science Education]: Computer
Science Education, Curriculum.
General Terms
Measurement, Experimentation, Human Factors.
Keywords
ICT courses, Programming courses, Informatics, Secondary education,
Students’ beliefs, cross-cultural.
1. INTRODUCTION
As the success of Computer Science Education (CSE) might
depend on students’ perceptions, attitude and beliefs, we aim to
identify the differences in regard of these factors between students
of a) secondary schools in Germany, b) secondary schools in
Greece and c) freshmen of CS at a university in Greece. Based on
existing theories as well as on prior work [11, 17], we have chosen
variables related to students’ attitude and applied them to
students from two different countries that attended three different
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy
otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists,
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
Conference’10, Month 1–2, 2010, City, State, Country.
Copyright 2010 ACM 1-58113-000-0/00/0010…$10.00.
Peter Hubwieser
Technische Universität München
Fakultät für Informatik
Boltzmannstr. 3. D-85478 Garching
+49 89 289 17350
Peter.Hubwieser@tum.de
20
Alexander Ruf
Technische Universität München
Fakultät für Informatik
Boltzmannstr. 3. D-85478 Garching
+49 89 289 17350
rufa@in.tum.de
programming courses in secondary school and university, respectively.
The goal of this investigation was to measure students’
beliefs and to identify potential differences among different educational
contexts. As students’ beliefs and attitude are highly
correlated with their performance, students’ perceptions have an
impact on what they will learn as well as how they plan to continue
their course of study [15].
The study presented in this paper was conducted on a large sample
in Greece and Germany and seeks to provide insights for the
following research aspects:
a) To explore students’ perceptions regarding CS,
b) To investigate potential differences in perceptions regarding
CS amongst German and Greek upper secondary education
students,
c) To investigate potential differences in perceptions regarding
CS amongst the ending of secondary education and the beginning
of higher computing education students.
The study attempts to fill the gaps in the CSE literature regarding
students' perceptions in different countries and in different educational
levels. Based on the empirical results we could further our
understanding of students CS perception in the transition from
upper secondary education to higher computing education. The
study is significant in that it focuses on the upper secondary education
level, is situated in real conditions context collecting empirical
data, while at the same time addressing not students' career
choices with regard to CS, but their perceptions on several aspects
regarding CS. The outcomes of the study could further our understanding
of students participation in the field of computing and
could provide useful insight into the actions that should be devised
within the educational system with a view to encouraging
this participation.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
RELATED WORK
Students’ perceptions and intentions are considered as important
determinants of the learning success. Reluctance towards adoption
of informatics courses implies that research is needed to understand,
more comprehensively, how students can be engendered.
Although past research [3, 5] has empirically explained several
issues regarding students perceptions and beliefs regards CSE, it
is mostly focused on higher education and more specifically on
CS departments.
Several models and theories have been applied to address issues
of students’ attitude, perceptions and to identify the cause and the
* This work was carried out during the tenure of an ERCIM "Alain Bensoussan"
Fellowship programme. The research leading to these results has
received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme
(FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 246016.