Abstract. This paper presents a result of preliminary study conducted to measure Mathematics students' perceptions towards programming, and the activities of programming in general. Sample group were students who were currently pursuing their second year degree in Mathematics with Computer Graphics (MCG) programme, who took Computer Interface Programming (CIP) course during their first semester in their current academic year. The study was conducted after a realisation that the students were reluctant in attempting programming problems in their coursework that caused a large drop in their assessments marks. The instrument used was adopted from a survey which measured students’ attitudes towards Computer Science. The survey was modified such that to reflect students’ programming perceptions instead. The instrument seeks to measure several perception components which were: Confidence (C), Attitude (A), Usefulness (U) and Motivation (M). With 24 items in the questionnaire and 34 respondents, the reliability test conducted had an average value of Cronbach's Alpha α =0.762. Data was analysed using Principle Factoring of Factor Analysis. The total variance was 70.869% while the Keiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test gave a value of 0.515. The Bartlett's test of sphericity had a significant p-value of less than 0.05. Three new factors were identified to contribute to the perceptions components. It could then be concluded that the students had negative perceptions towards programming. It was thus suggested that further research should be done to other batches of Mathematics students. Keywords and Phrases: Computer Programming Survey, Mathematics students, Programming Perceptions, Factor Analysis. 1. INTRODUCTION Programming and pr... ... middle of paper ... ...eet, Milton: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd., 2011. [4] DIANNE H. AND SELBY M., Does It Help to Have Some Programming Experience Before Beginning a Computing Degree Program?, Proceedings of ITiCSE 2000, pp 25-28, 2000. [5] OP’T EYNDE, P. AND DE CORTE, E., Students’ Mathematics-Related Beliefs: Design and Analysis of a Questionnaire, Paper presented at annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 2003. [6] SANTOS, J. R., Cronbach’s Alpha: A Tool for assessing the reliability of scales, Journal of Extension [On-line], Vol. 37, No. 2, 1999. [7] TONNY J., The Motivation of Students of Programming, Proceedings of ITiCSE 2001, pp 53-56, ACM, 2001. [8] WIEBE, E., WILLIAMS, L., YANG, K. AND MILLER, C., Computer Science Attitude Survey, Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, NC State University, Raliegh, NC, TR-2003-01, 2003.
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Parsons, June J. and Oja, Dan. Computer Concepts 8th Edition. United States: Course Technology, 2006.
Rittle-Johnson, B., & Alibali, M. W. (1999). Conceptual and procedural knowledge of mathematics: Does one lead to the other? Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 175-189.
Mathematics education has undergone many changes over the last several years. Some of these changes include the key concepts all students must master and how they are taught. According to Jacob Vigdor, the concerns about students’ math achievements have always been apparent. A few reasons that are negatively impacting the productivity of students’ math achievements are historical events that influenced mathematics, how math is being taught, and differentiation of curriculum.
Many seem to think of mathematics as being nothing more than a series of numbers and formulas that they must learn, in order to pass a particular requirement for their college degree. They rarely, if ever, stop to think about the importance of mathematics and how it actually affects them and the people around them. It is ...
Wu, Y. (2008). Experimental Study on Effect of Different Mathematical Teaching Methodologies on Students’ Performance. Journal of Mathematics Studies. Vol 1(1) 164-171.
Using literacy strategies in the mathematics classroom leads to successful students. “The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) define mathematical literacy as an “individual's ability to explore, to conjecture, and to reason logically, as well as to use a variety of mathematical methods effectively to solve problems." Exploring, making conjectures, and being able to reason logically, all stem from the early roots of literacy. Authors Matthews and Rainer (2001) discusses how teachers have questioned the system of incorporating literacy with mathematics in the last couple of years. It started from the need to develop a specific framework, which combines both literacy and mathematics together. Research was conducted through
Most employers would like to hire people who have at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science, systems software engineering or computer information systems with knowledge of, and experience with, a variety of computer systems and technologies. Graduate degrees are wanted for some of the more difficult jobs.
Sherley, B., Clark, M. & Higgins, J. (2008) School readiness: what do teachers expect of children in mathematics on school entry?, in Goos, M., Brown, R. & Makar, K. (eds.) Mathematics education research: navigating: proceedings of the 31st annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia, Brisbane, Qld: MERGA INC., pp.461-465.
When teaching mathematics to children the teacher’s enthusiasm can determine whether or not the child's math experience is negative or positive. For instance if you do not like math chances are, it will show up in the activities that you prepare for the child, as well as the way you go about a question because the children will sense your frustration that you have for math. If a teacher likes math on the other hand the activities will be well thought out, and the children will be able to ask questions without having the feeling that the teacher is frustrated because they are giving off a positive attitude. This is what shapes the person's feelings towards math, how good of a math teacher one is, and how whether or not the person's experience is negative or positive.
Towers, J., Martin, L., & Pirie, S. (2000). Growing mathematical understanding: Layered observations. In M.L. Fernandez (Ed.), Proceedings of the Annual Meetings of North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Tucson, AZ, 225-230.
The field of Computer Science is based primarily on computer programing. Programming is the writing of computer programs using letters and numbers to make "code". The average computer programer will write at least a million lines of code in his or her lifetime. But even more important than writting code, a good programer must be able to solve problems and think logicaly.
Allowing children to learn mathematics through all facets of development – physical, intellectual, emotional and social - will maximize their exposure to mathematical concepts and problem solving. Additionally, mathematics needs to be integrated into the entire curriculum in a coherent manner that takes into account the relationships and sequences of major mathematical ideas. The curriculum should be developmentally appropriate to the
After my twelfth grade, the inherent ardor I held for Computer Sciencemotivated me to do a bachelors degree in Information Technology. Programming and Math, a paragon of logic and reasoning have always been my favorite subjects since childhood. I still vividly remember the time during my graduation,when I was successful in creating a simple calculator application as a class assignment.The joy I derived from creating something that is used by a lot of people to help them perform complex calculations,made me realize the power of computing in its true sense.It was also in my graduation that I developed an immense interest in programming languages such as Java, C++ an...
Being a person that started off loving mathematics and experiencing different things I can say my beliefs have changed, but are back to where they began. I believe when it is time to teach mathematics this specific subject is going to have students on their toes ready to learn. As stated in my previous autobiography, “mathematics serves as a good subject for people to understand because it is something that follows you after school”, this particular statement serves as true because numbers and operations are real world things that humans