Development of computer programming attitude scale for university students

Abstract

Although the determination of university students' attitudes towards computer programming is a significant issue, the issue has been rarely studied. The purpose of this study was to develop an attitude scale assessing university students' attitudes towards computer programming. In the first phase, the scale was administered to 522 university students. Explanatory factor analysis yielded three dimensions: affection, cognition, and behavior. In the second phase, final version of the 18 item-scale was administered to 553 university students. Results of confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the factorial structure of the scale. The Cronbach alpha coefficients ranged from 0.80 to 0.90. Psychometric properties of Computer Programming Attitude Scale (CPAS) suggest that it is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring university students' attitudes towards computer programming. ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23:667-672, 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae;

From Android games to coding in C—An approach to motivate novice engineering students to learn programming: A case study

“…Cetin and Ozden [5] studied students' attitudes toward computer programming, and have developed a scale of attitudes: affection, cognition, and behavior. Research conducted among students by Kinnunen and Malmi [12] has shown that time consumption and motivation are the most important factors in the successful completion of programming courses.…”

Examination of Undergraduate and Associate Degree Students’ Computer Programming Attitude and Self-Efficacy According to Thinking Style, Gender and Experience

“…Programming self-efficacy is one of the variables that affect the programming success (Bergin & Reilly, 2005;Mazman, 2013;Lishinski, Yadav, Good, & Enbody, 2016). Although attitude toward computer programming has not been a comprehensively studied subject (Cetin & Ozden, 2015), Ozyurt (2015) reported a moderate, positive, and significant correlation between programming attitude and self-efficacy. The fact that attitude and self-efficacy increased and decreased together in this study as well indicates the relationship between them.…”

“…However, studies mostly deal with cognitive constructs such as alternative comprehension, mental models, and novice-expert comparisons. Therefore, the number of studies on student attitudes has been limited (Cetin & Ozden, 2015). Attitude, which covers a considerable portion of affective learning, has significant effects on our behavior and is an important element that shapes our cognitive structure.…”

Gender Differences in Middle School Students’ Attitudes and Self-Efficacy Perceptions towards mBlock Programming

“…External obstacles are the ones that are not related with students, such as the inappropriate teaching methods used by teachers (Guzdial & Soloway, 2002;Lee, 2011); the use of text-based programming languages and the necessity of knowing the syntax and commands of these languages (Jenkins, 2002); the abstractness of the basic concepts of programming; the difficulty of testing the program and correcting errors (Pausch, Dann, & Cooper, 2000). On the other hand, internal obstacles are the ones that are directly related to the learners themselves, such as the negative attitudes towards programming (Courte, Howard, & Bishop-Clark, 2006;Cetin & Ozden, 2015;Korkmaz & Altun, 2013;Yukselturk & Altiok, 2017) and low self-efficacy perceptions (Altun & Mazman, 2012;Askar & Davenport, 2009;Yukselturk & Altiok, 2017).…”

“…The other critical factor determining students' perceptions of computer programming is the attitudes of students. Students' attitudes toward programming can affect their success in computer science courses and career choices (Cetin & Ozden, 2015). Studies have shown that boys' attitudes towards programming are significantly higher than girls' (Baser, 2013, Korkmaz & Altun, 2013, Rubio, Romero-Zaliz, Mañoso & de Madrid, 2015 and there is a positive relationship between attitude towards programming and programming achievement (Baser, 2013).…”