C Tutor usage in relation to student achievement and progress: a study of introductory programming courses in Portugal and Serbia

Previous research studies on introductory programming courses in engineering education in Portugal and Serbia have indicated that although high motivation and high expectations seem to be reported by students, many students may fail the course. This prompted a further inquiry into student attitudes, behavior, and achievement, and it also led to the introduction of C Tutor, a widely known program visualization tool, into courses in both countries. As a result, in the present study, self‐reported student achievement (grades), self‐reported student progress (knowledge improvement and confidence), and self‐reported usage and helpfulness of C Tutor were investigated. Anonymous data about students and their experience in the course, which also included the usage of C Tutor, were collected in a survey in Portugal and Serbia. Quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics, clustering, statistical testing of independence, and partial correlation analysis, were applied in analyses of survey data. The distribution of grades differed between the two countries, but overall attitudes were similar. Various uncovered patterns involving student attitudes and usage of C Tutor may serve as a starting point for new research studies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Student entrance knowledge, expectations, and motivation within introductory programming courses in Portugal and Serbia

Programming is a skill needed across various disciplines and it is becoming more valuable for many job positions. However, students still appear to struggle in introductory programming courses. Academic achievement in programming may be influenced by numerous factors and may vary across countries, as observed in a previous study focused on Portugal and Serbia. In the present study, factors generally related to achievement and attrition, namely student entrance knowledge, expectations, and motivation, were examined as possible reasons behind achievement issues in introductory programming. An anonymous questionnaire that comprised closed-ended items was given to students enrolled in introductory programming courses at technically oriented higher education institutions in Portugal and Serbia. After data cleansing, response data from 678 students were quantitatively analysed to identify overall characteristics of the investigated groups, as well as differences between the groups from the two countries. The students generally had numerous expectations and motives regarding introductory programming, but their reported entrance knowledge of programming was generally at low levels. On average, the groups from the two countries were similar. The main differences include higher entrance knowledge for students from Serbia and slightly higher expectations for students from Portugal. These findings form a basis for further inquiry into causes of previously observed student performance variations between Portugal and Serbia. As there are many commonalities between the students from these countries, we may work on novel instruction methods and tools that would be useful for programming teachers and enrolled students in both countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio