Abstract
This study investigates the effects of student use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies on their computer programming achievement. Ninety-six students from undergraduate teacher training programmes offered by a Hong Kong university voluntarily participated in the study. Sixty-six of them were first-year students enrolling on an introductory Java programming course, while 30 were second-year students enrolling on an advanced Java programming course. The SRL strategies adopted by participants were measured by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and were exemplified from the reflective writing of their electronic portfolios. Their achievement in computer programming was evaluated using continuous and end of course assessments. The findings of this study suggest that higher-order cognitive strategies (i.e. elaboration, organization, critical thinking), metacognitive control strategies (i.e. self-regulation) and resource management strategies (i.e. time and study environment management, help seeking) are likely to facilitate a prolonged achievement of computer programming for both novices and non-novices. They can provide insights into designing adequate SRL strategy training to support student learning in computer programming.
Highlights
Computer programming is generally regarded as the process of designing and executing a sequence of instructions for a computer to accomplish a specific task
This study investigates the effects of student use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies on their computer programming achievement
The learning strategies section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was administered to 66 first year university students from an introductory Java programming course and 30 second year university students from an advanced Java programming course in an attempt to evaluate their use of SRL strategies, while their computer programming achievement was measured by their performance in continuous assessment and end assessment
Summary
Computer programming is generally regarded as the process of designing and executing a sequence of instructions for a computer to accomplish a specific task. There is a substantial body of evidence showing the importance and benefits of SRL strategies on student learning in some subject areas like language and science (Akyol, Sungur, & Tekkaya, 2010; Cheng & Chau, 2013; Sun & Wang; Zheng et al, 2020) but very limited in some other areas like computer programming. To fill this gap, this study aimed to explore the effects of student use of SRL strategies on their achievement in different types of programming assessment. Given the growing importance of computer programming in this digital age, the findings of this study will be of great interest and relevant to researchers and practitioners in computer programming education
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