An Investigation into the Performance of First Year Programming Students in Relation to their Grade 12

Computer Subject Results

By

Glenda Barlow-Jones

Duan van der Westhuizen

Carla Coetzee

ED-MEDIA 2014

2

Research Problem

• Previous computer programming experience at school level has a positive influence in novice programmers’ success.

• Students who come from the wealthier formerly white schools in South Africa may have done Information Technology (IT) as a Grade 12 subject.

• Students typically from formerly black schools in poorer areas, generally have no programming experience and more than often, no computing experience at all.

• Students studying a computer programming course, enter the qualification with varying degrees of experience.

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Low Number of SA Learners Taking IT

• School going learners who select Information Technology as a subject in Grade 10 through to Grade 12 have dropped.

(Source: Department of Basic Education, 2012).

2010 2011 2012Total Students

No of IT Students

% ITStudents

Total Students

No of IT Students

% ITStudents

Total Students

No of IT Students

% ITStudents

641 533 4 884 0.76% 620 266 4 313 0.69% 647 074 4 428 0.68%

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IT in Rural Schools

• The challenges that rural schools experience in offering IT as a subject:

No Internet access in the computer labs;Learners don’t have computers at home to practise;Insufficient technical assistance for the maintenance of the computer labs;Lack of teaching support;Learners can’t afford to buy the prescribed textbook;Schools experience frequent electrical outages, which impacts on the

offering of the subject.

(Source: Varughese, 2011).

5

Computer Applications Technology (CAT) vs Information Technology (IT)

Information Technology Computer Applications Technology

• Solution planning• Web development• Algorithms• Software engineering• Application development• Problem solving

• Basic computer concepts• Spreadsheets (Excel)• Databases (Access)• Presentations (Powerpoint)• Wordprocessing (Word)

• Learners tend to drop IT at the first opportunity that presents itself, opting to change to an ‘easier’ subject such as Computer Applications Technology (CAT) (Gomes & Mendes, 2008).

6

Study

• In order to determine whether a student’s Grade 12 CAT or IT marks are a predictor of academic performance in computer programming, students’ CAT and/or IT marks were compared to their marks in the subject Development Software 1 (programming).

• The study was conducted on a group of 102 first year students studying the National Diploma: Business Information Technology at the University of Johannesburg in 2012; and

• 456 students studying the National Diploma: Information Technology at the Tshwane University of Technology in 2013.

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Study

Tshwane University of TechnologyGrade 12 Computer Subject No. of StudentsComputer Applications Technology (CAT) 37Information Technology (IT) 9Total 46 of 456 (10.9%)

University of JohannesburgGrade 12 Computer Subject No. of StudentsComputer Applications Technology (CAT) 29Information Technology (IT) 4Computer Studies 3Total 36 of 102 (35.3%)

Due to the sample size for Computer Studies and Information Technology being too small, only the CAT results are reported on.

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Findings

Correlations  CAT DSW01-1Spearman's rho

computer_matric_mark Correlation Coefficient

1.000 .430

Sig. (2-tailed)   .020N 29 29

devsoft_final_mark_v2 Development software final mark (term mark included)

Correlation Coefficient

.430 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .020  N 29 29

• The results show support that there is a moderate correlation between a student’s Grade 12 CAT marks and their final mark for Development Software 1.

University of Johannesburg

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

9

Findings

• The results show support that there is a moderate correlation between a student’s Grade 12 CAT marks and their final mark for Development Software 1.

Tshwane University of Technology

Correlations  CAT DSO17ATSpearman's rho CAT Correlation

Coefficient1.000 .385*

Sig. (2-tailed) . .019N 37 37

DSO17AT Correlation Coefficient

.385* 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .019 .N 37 37

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

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Conclusions

• Of the students who selected CAT as a Grade 12 subject, it was found that overall there is a moderate positive correlation between their performance in CAT and their programming module.

• It appears that in South Africa, students do not intentionally undertake to do an IT diploma or degree with little or no prior programming or computer experience, their under preparedness seems to be as a result of a lack of opportunity being made available in high school.