Re: Testing Inclination to Programming
I'd just like to endorse the suggestion that you regard this study as a pilot study. Last year I did an experiment on code reading (three programs presented in three different styles). It turned out that the dominant effects were - a number of students complaining that a 30-page manual for the programming language used in the task was an outrageous amount to ask them to read (they had _weeks_ to read it) - a large number of students who claimed to be unable to read code on paper, needing machine assistance with syntax colouring and searching (the programs were all a little under two pages long) - a number of students who claimed to be unable to read code without running test cases. The skill I wanted to investigate ("desk checking") was, it turned out, a skill most of the students did not possess at all. You can expect your pilot study to surprise you. -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
Re: Testing Inclination to Programming
Same of you mentioned the concept of self-efficacy and in some of the papers I found references to the following paper: Ramalingam V. & Wiedenbeck S. Development and validation of scores on a computer programming self-efficacy scale and group analyses of novice programmer self-efficacy. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 19(4) (1998), 365-379. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find it online. Even the journal site doesn't have a digital archive. Is there someone that could send me a digital copy of the paper? Thank you in advance Stefano Stefano Federici - Università degli Studi di Cagliari Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Dipartimento di Scienze Pedagogiche e Filosofiche Via Is Mirrionis 1, 09123 Cagliari, Italia - Cell: +39 349 818 1955 Tel.: +39 070 675 7815 Fax: +39 070 675 7113 -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).