The Effects of Scratch-Based Game Activities on Students’ Attitudes, Self-Efficacy and Academic Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to designate the effects of Scratch-based game activities on students’ attitudes towards learning computer programming, self-efficacy beliefs and levels of academic achievement. The research was conducted through a pre-test – post-test control group quasi- experimental study. The study group consists of 49 students studying at the Faculty of Engineering. The test group was administered a teaching method with Scratch- based game activities. On the other hand, the control group was directly taught C++ topics via an editor. Research data were collected via an implementing academic achievement test (Kr-20= 0, 71), attitude towards a learning programming scale (Cronbach’s Alpha =0.84) and a computer programming self-efficacy scale (Cronbach’s Alpha= 0.966). Our findings are as follows: A significant number of the students consider themselves as mid-level efficient in C++ programming. Scratch- based game activities render no effects on students’ attitudes and self-efficacy perceptions. On the other hand, Scratch-based game activities render significant contributions on students’ academic achievements in C++ programming language.