Abstract
This study examines the relationship between students' pre-college experience with computers and their later success in introductory computer science classes in college. Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of 10,197 students enrolled in computer science at 118 colleges and universities in the United States. We found that students taking introductory college computer science classes who had programmed on their own prior to college had a more positive attitude toward computer science, lower odds of dropping out, and earned higher grades, compared with students who had learned to program in a pre-college class, but had never programmed on own, or those who had never learned programming before college. Moreover, nearly half of the effect on final grades was mediated by a positive attitude toward computing.
Highlights
Why might it be the case that cowhand programmers outperformed the other students on all fronts? It is reasonable to suspect that cowhand programmers have a greater perceived self-efficacy and comfort level with programming
By programming alone, cowhand programmers have expressed greater interest in, and commitment to, the subject, which may help them push through the difficult portions of their college computer science (CS) course when many of their peers do not
This interpretation is supported by the mediation effect of positive attitude, which measures the level of interest, efficacy, and comfort
Summary
The FICSIT study sent out a 52-item survey to examine the pre-college computer experiences of students. The study’s investigators obtained responses from a stratified random sample of 10,197 students enrolled in 118 2- and 4-year colleges and universities across the United States. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System of the National Center for Educational Statistics provided a listing of post-secondary institutions that was used to build a stratified random sample reflecting the proportion of students in the U.S enrolled in 2-and 4-year colleges in three different size bins (small, medium, and large). Our final sample consisted of 118 institutions. Instructors provided students’ final grade in the college introductory CS course or indicated that the student had dropped the course. The final sample size in our analysis was 8,891
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