Gender Differences in Middle School Students’ Attitudes and Self-Efficacy Perceptions towards mBlock Programming

Mustafa Serkan Gunbatar,Halit Karalar

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.7.4.925

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">This study aims to assess the effects of teaching programming with mBlock on self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes considering programming. Particularly, this study tries to research whether there is a gender difference in middle school students or not. The study was conducted in pre-test/post-test quasi experimental design. The participants of the study which was completed in twelve weeks were 82 middle school students. The data were collected through “Educational Computer Games Assisted Learning Coding Attitude Scale” and “Computer Programming Self-efficacy Scale”. The results of the research indicate that although the self-efficacy perceptions of boys towards programming were higher than the girls’ at the beginning of the research, this difference was closed at the end of the research. The results also show that teaching programming with mBlock to middle school students did not cause gender differences in self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes regarding programming. Although girls’ attitudes regarding programming were slightly higher than boys’, the difference was not considered to be significant. In addition, it was found that programming with mBlock significantly increased students' self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes towards programming. As a result, teaching programming with mBlock can provide similar possibilities for both genders in self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes regarding programming.</p>

Highlights

Since programming has been used to improve students' problem solving, systematic thinking, critical thinking, algorithmic thinking, creative thinking and design skills (Clements & Gullo, 1984; diSessa, 2000; Fessakis, Gouli, & Mavroudi, 2013; Liao & Bright, 1991), it is important for students to be taught programming from very early ages
This study aims to assess the effects of teaching programming with mBlock on self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes considering programming
The results show that teaching programming with mBlock to middle school students did not cause gender differences in self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes regarding programming

Summary

Introduction

Since programming has been used to improve students' problem solving, systematic thinking, critical thinking, algorithmic thinking, creative thinking and design skills (Clements & Gullo, 1984; diSessa, 2000; Fessakis, Gouli, & Mavroudi, 2013; Liao & Bright, 1991), it is important for students to be taught programming from very early ages. Much research has been done in the field about obstacles encountered in teaching programming. These obstacles can be classified as external and internal obstacles. External obstacles are the ones that are not related with students, such as the inappropriate teaching methods used by teachers (Guzdial & Soloway, 2002; Lee, 2011); the use of text-based programming languages and the necessity of knowing the syntax and commands of these languages (Jenkins, 2002); the abstractness of the basic concepts of programming; the difficulty of testing the program and correcting errors (Pausch, Dann, & Cooper, 2000). Internal obstacles are the ones that are directly related to the learners themselves, such as the negative attitudes towards programming (Courte, Howard, & Bishop-Clark, 2006; Cetin & Ozden, 2015; Korkmaz & Altun, 2013; Yukselturk & Altiok, 2017) and low self-efficacy perceptions (Altun & Mazman, 2012; Askar & Davenport, 2009; Yukselturk & Altiok, 2017)

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