Effects of Peer Tutoring and Attitude on Academic Performance of First Year Introductory Programming Students

Previous research has estimated failure rates in introductory programming courses to be as high as 50% in universities around the world. These high incidences of failure have also led to negative attitudes towards programming. This paper takes a look at the Introduction to Programming course offered at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Pre-and post test programming scores were used to measure academic performance, while a survey derived from a modified Fennema-Sherman mathematics attitudes scale was used to measure student attitude towards programming. Three sub-categories were used for the measurement of attitudes, namely, personal confidence in learning programming, usefulness of programming and the perception of teacher motivation. Results indicate little evidence of a positive effect of peer tutoring on the academic performance of students. It also reveals that attitude, and in particular, confidence in learning programming, plays an important role in students' academic performance. This paper discusses the design of the study and analyzes the results gathered