Abstract
Motivation is essential for successful engagement in learning. This factor is especially important in courses that are considered difficult and require high cognitive engagement such as computer programming. One of the approaches to motivate engineering students in learning is to create an effective learning environment. This paper presents a qualitative study on undergraduate engineering students’ motivation towards learning programming based on the How People Learn (HPL) framework. The HPL framework comprises of elements that can be considered by instructors to design an effective learning environment. The methods designed for this study are observations and interviews while thematic analysis is employed in analysing the data. Findings based on lenses of the HPL framework are presented. Several recommendations for improving the learning environment are summarized as part of the outcomes of the study.
References
Bandura, A.: Social Foundations of Thought and Action : A Social Cognitive Theory, vol. xiii, 617 pp. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1986)
Bandura, A.: Socıal cognıtıve theory: an agentic perspective. Ann. Rev. Psychol. 52(1), 1–26 (2001). doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1
Bowen, J.D.: Motivating civil engineering students to learn computer programming with a structural design project. In: Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition (2004)
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R.R.: How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, vol. Expanded E. National Academies Press, Washington, DC (2000). doi:10.1016/0885-2014(91)90049-J
Bransford, J., Vye, N., Bateman, H.: Creating high-quality learning environments: guidelines from research on how people learn. In: The Knowledge Economy and Postsecondary Education: Report of Workshop, pp. 159–198 (2002)
Braun, V., Clarke, V.: Using thematic analysis in psychology using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 37–41 (2008). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Chou, P., Hsiao, H.: An alternative learning strategy to support engineering students’ programming skills: a case study. Global J. Eng. Educ. 13(1), 6–11 (2011)
Engineering Accreditation Commission Malaysia: Engineering programme accreditation manual (2012)
Erlandson, D.A., Harris, E.L., Skipper, B.L., Allen, S.D.: Doing Naturalistic Inquiry. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks (1993). Misc, JSTOR
Forte, A., Guzdial, M.: Motivation and nonmajors in computer science: identifying discrete audiences for introductory courses. IEEE Trans. Educ. 48(2), 248–253 (2005). doi:10.1109/TE.2004.842924
Garcia, T., Pintrich, P.R.: Assessing students’ motivation and learning strategies in the classroom context: the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire. In: Alternatives in Assessment of Achievements, Learning Processes and Prior Knowledge, pp. 319–339 (1996). doi:10.1007/978-94-011-0657-3_12
Gomes, A.J., Mendes, A.J.: An environment to improve programming education. In: Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies, p. 1. ACM (2007a). doi:10.1145/1330598.1330691
Gomes, A.J., Mendes, A.J.: Learning to program - difficulties and solutions. In: International Conference on Engineering Education–ICEE (2007b). http://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:DsUCTlDHqOkJ:scholar.google.com/+Learning+to+program+-+difficulties+and+solutions&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5. Accessed 14 Jan 2015
Gomes, A.J., Santos, A.N., Mendes, A.J.: A study on students’ behaviours and attitudes towards learning to program. In: Proceedings of the 17th ACM Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2012, p. 132. ACM Press, New York (2012). doi:10.1145/2325296.2325331
Heeg, J.J., Flenar, K., Ross, J.A., Okel, T., Deshpande, T.A., Bucks, G.W., Ossman, K.A.: Effective educational methods for teaching assistants in a first-year engineering MATLAB® course. In: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, pp. 24.455.1–24.455.15 (2014)
Jenkins, T.: On the difficulty of learning to program. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of the LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, vol. 4, pp. 53–58 (2002)
Jerez, J.M., Bueno, D., Molina, I., Urda, D., Franco, L.: Improving motivation in learning programming skills for engineering students. Int. J. Eng. Educ. 28(1), 202–208 (2012)
Lincoln, Y.S., Guba, E.G.: Naturalistic Inquiry. Sage Publications, Newbury Park (1985)
Lister, R., Leaney, J.: First year programming: let all the flowers bloom. In: Proceedings of the Fifth Australasian Conference on Computing Education, vol. 20, pp. 221–230 (2003)
Mendes, A.J., Paquete, L., Cardoso, A., Gomes, A.J.: Increasing student commitment in introductory programming learning. In: Proceedings of the 42nd Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2012, pp. 1–6 (2012). doi:10.1109/FIE.2012.6462486
Mladenović, S., Krpan, D., Mladenović, M.: Using games to help novices embrace programming: from elementary to higher education. Int. J. Eng. Educ. 32(1), 521–531 (2016)
Pears, A., Seidman, S., Malmi, L., Mannila, L., Adams, E., Bennedsen, J., et al.: A survey of literature on the teaching of introductory programming. In: Proceeding ITiCSE-WGR 2007 Working Group Reports on ITiCSE on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, pp. 204–223 (2007). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1345443.1345441
Pintrich, P.R., Prichard, K.W., Sawyer, R.M.: Student motivation in the college classroom. In: Handbook of College Teaching: Theory and Applications, pp. 23–43 (1994). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=1994-98769-002&site=ehost-live
Ring, B.A., Giordan, J., Ransbottom, J.S.: Problem solving through programming. In: Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, pp. 61–67 (2007)
Schostak, J.F.: Understanding, Designing and Conducting Qualitative Research in Education: Framing the Project. Open University Press, Buckingham (2002)
Schunk, D.H., Meece, J.R., Pintrich, P.R.: Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications, 4th edn. Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River (2014)
Serrano-Cámara, L.M., Paredes-Velasco, M., Alcover, C.-M., Velazquez-Iturbide, J.Á.: An evaluation of students’ motivation in computer-supported collaborative learning of programming concepts. Comput. Hum. Behav. 31, 499–508 (2014). doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.030
Svinicki, M.D.: Learning and Motivation in the Postsecondary Classroom. Anker Publishing Company, Boston (2004)
Urban-Lurain, M., Weinshank, D.J.: Do non-computer science students need to program? J. Eng. Educ. 90(4), 535–541 (2001). http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.uark.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=48056625&site=ehost-live&scope=site
White, G.L., Sivitanides, M.P.: A theory of the relationships between cognitive requirements of computer programming languages and programmers’ cognitive characteristics. J. Inf. Syst. Educ. 13(1), 59–68 (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Azmi, N.A., Mohd-Yusof, K., Phang, F.A., Syed Hassan, S.A.H. (2018). Motivating Engineering Students to Engage in Learning Computer Programming. In: Auer, M., Kim, KS. (eds) Engineering Education for a Smart Society. GEDC WEEF 2016 2016. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 627. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60937-9_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60937-9_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60936-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60937-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)