Mediating Effect of Students’ Perception in Programming on the Relationship Between Project Work and College Students’ Interest in Programming

Abstract

Computer programming has been a subject of debate, whether students have an interest or not. Students' impressions of their own abilities to program and of programming in general are influenced by their early programming experiences, which play a role in encouraging or discouraging students' interest in computing areas. As a result, project work as a method of teaching has been adopted by many lecturers in teaching computer programming. However, the study sought to assess the mediating influence of students' perception in the relationship between project work and college students' interest in programming. The study used a descriptive survey design. The target population for the study included all Computer Science and Mathematics students at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. The population for the study was 2,410 students with a sample size of 332. The researcher used a questionnaire to gather the data for studying the issue under investigation. Analysis of the data was done through the use of the PROCESS Macro. The results revealed that the mediating effect of students’ perception of programming on the relationship between project work and college students’ interest in programming accounts for only 0.34% of the total contribution of factors that influence college students’ interest in programming.