A survey of attitudes to, knowledge about and experience of computers

Abstract

There is some concern that relatively few students in the U.K. elect to study computing and that this number is declining despite the high pay levels of computer staff and emphasis on computing in education. Variables known to be associated with the extent to which an individual is likely to make use of computers are background discipline, attitude to computers and IT, attitude to technology in general, experience of computers and gender. The present study investigates the relationships between these variables for 928 students at an institution of higher education. Subjects had been selected to fall into four discipline areas: COMP (computer/electronic studies), SCIENCE (science courses), HI-IT (non-science courses making heavy use of IT) and LOW-IT (non-science courses making relatively low use of IT). Results indicated that on entry to college, students in the COMP category had more experience with computers than students in other categories and that across all categories, except HI-IT, males had more experience with computers on entry than females. Students in the COMP category also had significantly more knowledge about computers than other students and across all categories males had more knowledge than females on entry. There were relatively minor differences in attitudes to computers and IT with COMP students being slightly more positive than students in the other categories, and there were no differences in attitudes to technology in general across the four categories. There were no consistent gender differences on the attitude variables. Results were discussed with relation to vocational choice and it was concluded that females on computer courses may, in general, be rather less interested in computers per se than their male peers.