On Things that Matter in Learning Programming: Towards a Scale for New Programming Students

Full research paper—In this paper, we report on the development of a succinct and easy-to-administer 11-item scale that quantifies students’ self-efficacy, social aspect, independence, and meaning of studies, with a focus on introductory programming studies. The scale has been constructed using exploratory factor analysis of survey response data collected from students attending introductory programming courses offered by two universities. We evaluate the scale by using it to examine differences between university contexts, and assess to what extent the scale relates to students’ perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on studies, prior programming experience, self-assessed competence, and seeking help. Our evaluation of the scale suggests that social aspect was correlated with being more strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the perceived ability to work independently was correlated with reduced influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior programming experience was positively correlated with self-perceived ability to work independently and with self-efficacy. Similarly, self-estimated competence was positively correlated with self-efficacy. Finally, social aspect and meaning of studies were positively correlated with help-seeking. Our evaluations show that the scale holds promise as a new tool for researchers and practitioners seeking to improve understanding of their study contexts.