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Original Research
Increasing self-efficacy in learning to program: exploring the benefits of explicit instruction for problem solving
The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa | Vol 10, No 1 | a19 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v10i1.19
| © 2014 Irene Govender, Desmond W Govender, Marietjie Havenga, Elsa Mentz, Betty Breed, Frank Dignum, Virginia Dignum
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 23 February 2016 | Published: 30 July 2014
Submitted: 23 February 2016 | Published: 30 July 2014
About the author(s)
Irene Govender, Discipline of Information Systems and Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South AfricaDesmond W Govender, Discipline of Computer Science Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Marietjie Havenga, Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Elsa Mentz, Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom
Betty Breed, Faculty of Education Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Frank Dignum, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
Virginia Dignum, Delft University, Delft, Netherlands
Full Text:
PDF (235KB)Abstract
The difficulty of learning to program has long been identified amongst novices. This study explored the benefits of teaching a problem solving strategy by comparing students’ perceptions and attitudes towards problem solving before and after the strategy was implemented in secondary schools. Based on self-efficacy theory, students’ problem solving self-efficacy as well as teachers’ self-efficacy were investigated, showing that both students’ and teachers’ self-efficacy may have benefited from the explicit instruction. This would imply that teaching problem solving explicitly should be encouraged to increase self-efficacy to program.
Keywords
Programming; problem solving; teaching and learning; self-efficacy
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