Implicit Theories and Self-efficacy in an Introductory Programming Course

TL;DR

This study explores how students' beliefs about intelligence and programming self-efficacy influence their effort and success in an introductory programming course, highlighting the importance of these psychological factors.

Contribution

It investigates the relationship between implicit theories, self-efficacy, and student success, providing insights into predicting performance based on these constructs.

Findings

Implicit theories and self-efficacy are interrelated.

They correlate with effort, performance, and past failures.

Students attribute programming failure to fixed aptitude.

Abstract

Contribution: This study examined student effort and performance in an introductory programming course with respect to student-held implicit theories and self-efficacy. Background: Implicit theories and self-efficacy shed a light into understanding academic success, which must be considered when developing effective learning strategies for programming. Research Questions: Are implicit theories of intelligence and programming, and programming-efficacy related to each other and student success in programming? Is it possible to predict student course performance using a subset of these constructs? Methodology: Two consecutive surveys (N=100 and N=81) were administered to non-CS engineering students in I\c{s}{\i}k University. Findings: Implicit theories and self-beliefs are interrelated and correlated with effort, performance, and previous failures in the course and students explain failure in programming course with "programming-aptitude is fixed" theory, and also that programming is a difficult task for themselves.