Proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing students' knowledge of programming. The idea is to integrate three types of programming knowledge from educational computing literature with three forms of knowledge from cognitive psychology literature. A study is described that determined types of knowledge required to answer exam questions, and…

Describes a study that examined changes in preservice and inservice teachers' attitudes toward computers following their participation in an educational computing class and explored factors that contributed to their computer use. Discusses prior computer experience, having home computers, and current use of technology in the school at which they…

Discussion of computer programing and students' cognitive styles focuses on a study that explored the relationship between the cognitive styles and achievements of high school students in an introductory computer programing course. Reflective and impulsive cognitive styles are described, and implications for the design of instructional materials…

Presents a model that suggests the cognitive style and personality traits that are likely to affect programming stages and empirically investigates 1 portion of that model with 192 college students. Correlations between results from the Group Embedded Figures Test and design and coding tasks are discussed. (LRW)

A learning style inventory was administered to 68 undergraduates enrolled in a course on computer applications in education. Correlation of these data with grades on class projects and exams indicated that students with high abstract sequential ability had higher performance scores, and learners with a dominance in abstract random style had lower…

A study of college students revealed weaknesses in learning strategies and metacognitive skills. The students' experience using LOOPS simulation software to create program loops suggests that computer programming coursework may have substantial value for non-majors. (LRW)

Discussion of the relationship of personality variables to programing ability highlights a study of undergraduates that investigated the influence of cognitive style on the programing skill of debugging. Use of the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) is described, scoring schemes for diagnostic tasks are explained, and suggestions for further…

Discusses a survey conducted to understand the gender imbalance and high level of female attrition in computer science. Suggests that factors influencing the rate of attrition are lack of previous experience with computers, gender-biased attitudes and behavior, interactions with other computer science students, and the nature of computer science…

Pretests measuring critical thinking ability and mental alertness were administered to 72 first-year college students at the beginning of an introductory computer programing course. Posttests administered at the end of the semester showed significant improvement in both areas, indicating that instruction in programing improves students' critical…

Describes a study that examined the formal reasoning abilities of 147 preservice students in elementary education enrolled in a computer education course. Use of the Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning (ATFR) is explained, and correlations between students' ages and grade point averages and their scores on the ATFR are discussed. (Contains 22…

Discusses results of a survey of undergraduate students that investigated their current knowledge of computers and the level of knowledge they would like to have. Attitudes of students who had prior computer courses or who owned a computer were found to be more positive than those of students who did not. (27 references) (LRW)

Identifies and discusses some of the issues and problems associated with computer literacy education for teachers. Topics discussed include the role of technology in education; the role of programing in computer literacy; certification requirements; computer training for teaching educators; teacher attitudes; and classroom implementation of…

Discusses the positive transfer of computer-related skills to new computer tasks and reviews transfer-related literature to provide recommendations to facilitate better transfer of students' skills from introductory computer classes to future needs. Topics addressed include course goals, user interfaces, problem solving, and software. (Contains 60…

Discussion of the benefits of allowing programers to use their own words in programing focuses on a study of graduate students that tested whether an experimental group who specified their own operation codes performed better than a control group who used fixed codes. The results of regression analyses are discussed, and future research needs are…

Describes study of undergraduate students that measured four types of attitudes toward computers: (1) computer anxiety; (2) computer confidence; (3) computer liking; and (4) perception of computer usefulness. Independent variables used in the study include gender; keyboard familiarity; prior computer experience; and knowledge of programing, word…