Cognitive ability is closely associated with the acquisition of programming skills, and enhancing learners' cognitive ability is a crucial factor in improving the efficacy of programming education. Adaptive feedback strategies can provide learners with personalized support based on their learning context, which helps to stimulate their interest…

Scholars believe that computational thinking is one of the essential competencies of the 21st century and computer programming courses have been recognized as a potential means of fostering students' computational thinking. In tradition instruction, PFCT (problem identification, flow definition, coding, and testing) is a commonly adopted procedure…

A quality computer science (CS) teacher needs to understand students' common misconceptions in learning CS. This study explored one aspect of CS teachers' understanding of student misconceptions: their perceptions of student misconceptions related to introductory programming. Perceptions in this study included three parts: teachers' perceived…

To explore the role of design thinking in contemporary computer literacy education, this study aimed to examine the relationship between young students' design thinking disposition and their computer programming self-efficacy. To assess students' design thinking disposition, this study developed the Design Thinking Disposition Scale (DTDS) with a…

Learning programming is a painful process for most students, especially those learning text- based programming languages. In this study, based on the principle of Bandura's social learning theory, the vicarious real-life experiences of several pioneers in the field of IT and programming were presented as 15-minutes stories to a group of 9th…

Computer programming has been gradually emphasized in recent computer literacy education and regarded as a requirement for all middle school students in some countries. To understand young students' perceptions about their own learning in computer programming, this study aimed to develop an instrument, Computer Programming Self-Efficacy Scale…

Today, information technology (IT) has permeated virtually every aspect of our society and the learning of software programming is becoming increasingly important to the creation and maintenance of the IT infrastructure critical to our daily life. In this article, we report the results of a study that demonstrates how the self-regulation paradigm…

Teacher-centered instruction has been widely adopted in college computer science classrooms and has some benefits in training computer science undergraduates. Meanwhile, student-centered contexts have been advocated to promote computer science education. How computer science learners respond to or prefer the two types of teacher authority,…

In this article we quantitatively and qualitatively analyze a sample of novice programmer compilation log data, exploring whether (or how) low-achieving, average, and high-achieving students vary in their grasp of these introductory concepts. High-achieving students self-reported having the easiest time learning the introductory programming…

Technology skills instruction is an important component of educational technology courses, which has been shown to raise pre-service teachers' computer self-efficacy. Computer self-efficacy, in turn, is positively related to their self-efficacy for technology integration. Studies of undergraduate technology skills instruction found that classroom…

A 32-item self-efficacy scale for computer programming was developed, primed to the C++ programming language. The scale was administered to 421 students at the beginning and end of an introductory course in C++ programming. There was growth in self-efficacy between two administrations of the scale 12 weeks apart, particularly for students who…

Tests the effects of Web page design instruction on improving computer self-efficacy of preservice teachers. Various computer experiences, including weekly computer use, weekly Internet use, and use frequencies of word processing, e-mail, games, and presentation software were significantly related to computer self-efficacy. Use frequencies of word…

Describes a study of Norwegian college students that investigated whether gender, group composition, or self-efficacy in computing has any impact on cooperation, giving or getting task-related help, and level of activity in student groups. Results confirms gender differences in self-efficacy in computing. (Author/LRW)

Describes a study that examined various characteristics of undergraduate students enrolled in a computer skills course. Variables considered include gender, college major, high school computer courses, other prior computer experience, computer self-efficacy, computer attitude, computer anxiety, and cognitive style. (Author/LRW)