An investigation of factors related to self-efficacy for Java programming among computer science education students

Abstract

Students usually perceived computer programming courses as one of the most difficult courses since learning to program is perceived as a difficult task. Quite often students’ negative perceptions on computer programming results in poor results and high drop-out rates. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of factors that affect computer science education students’ Java programming self-efficacy and the relationship between Java programming self-efficacy and students’ age and gender. A questionnaire was used to gather data. A scale with thirty-two items assessing Java programming self-efficacy was adapted from Askar and Davenport’s (2009) computer programming self-efficacy scale. A total of twenty students from a Computer Science Education Discipline participated in this study. Collected data were analysed using SPSS version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, reliability test, mean, standard deviation, and rotated component matrix were utilized to analyze the resulting data. Results indicated that there is not much difference between males (45%) and females (55%) Java programming self-efficacy. Furthermore, the results also indicated that programming skills and Java constructs have higher influence on the self-efficacy for Java programming among computer science education students followed by non-complexity, time consciousness, ability to recode for better understanding and self-motivation.