Identification of Student-Related Factors Influencing Programming Courses Learning at UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang using Factor Analysis
Keywords:
engineering students, novices, programming difficulty, students' factorAbstract
Many people claim that teaching and studying computer programming is challenging, mainly for learners who are not from computer science background. It might be difficult for instructors to help students grasp programming principles and acquire the necessary programming abilities to solve problems in the everyday life. Students' lack of logical, creative and critical thinking leads to flaws in problem-based learning implementation (PBL). Based on related past studies, one entity of computer programming learning challenges, namely the student, was examined and analyzed. An online questionnaire was created to collect data from 241 diploma and degree students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FKM) and the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA) who have completed programming courses at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Pulau Pinang. An analysis using descriptive statistics and factor analysis was applied to determine the student-related component that has the greatest impact on students' learning of programming subjects. The result showed that although some students experience frustration when their lecturer is absent or the conversation is interrupted, the majority of students do not experience any problems with their interest in programming languages or their study habits. Additionally, students' interests and habits were observed as the most influential variables in their decision to learn programming. They are always prepared in class and put a great effort into completing the assessments assigned to them. The findings can be applied to enhance the instructional methodology for programming classes to improve students' comprehension and problem-solving abilities in these subjects.
References
Abdul Rahman, T. F. B., Anuar, N., & Mohd Said, R. F. (2018). How the nature of programming and learning materials affects novice learner’s motivation and programming ability. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 124–128. https://doi.org/10.1145/3178158.3178184 Cheah, C. S. (2020).
Factors contributing to the difficulties in teaching and learning of computer programming: A literature review. Contemporary Educational Technology, 12(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/8247 Gomes, A. J., Santos, Á. N., & Mendes, A. J. (2012).
A study on students’ behaviours and attitudes towards learning to program. Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE, 132–137. https://doi.org/10.1145/2325296.2325331 Kumar, R. (2018).
Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage. Mhashi, M. M., & Alakeel, A. L. I. M. (2013).
Difficulties Facing Students in Learning Computer Programming Skills at Tabuk University. Recent Advances in Modern Educational Technologies, 15–24. Mohamed Shuhidan, S., Hamilton, M., & D’Souza, D. (2011).
Understanding novice programmer difficulties via guided learning. ITiCSE’11 - Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science, 213–217. https://doi.org/10.1145/1999747.1999808 Moström, J. E. (2011).
A study of Student Problems in Learning to Program. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-48216%5Cnhttp://umu.diva portal.org/smash/get/diva2:447104/FULLTEXT02%5 Cnhttp://umu.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:447104 Oroma, J., Wanga, H., & Ngumbuke, F. (2012a).
Challenges of Teaching and Learning Computer Programming in a Developing Country: Lessons From Tanzania. INTED2012 Proceedings, October, 3820–3826. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.3836.6407 Oroma, J., Wanga, H., & Ngumbuke, F. (2012b).
Challenges of teaching and learning computer programming in developing countries: lessons from tumaini university. DOI: Https://Doi. Org/10.13140/2.1, 3836. Qian, Y., & Lehman, J. D. (2019).
Using Targeted Feedback to Address Common Student Misconceptions in Introductory Programming: A Data-Driven Approach. SAGE Open, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019885136 Rahmat, M., Shahrani, S., Latih, R., Yatim, N. F. M., Zainal, N. F. A., & Rahman, R. A. (2012).
Major Problems in Basic Programming that Influence Student Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 59, 287–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.277 Siti Rosminah, M. D., & Ahmad Zamzuri, M. A. (2012). Difficulties in learning Programming: Views of students. 1st International Conference on Current Issues in Education (ICCIE2012), October 2014, 74–78. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.1055.7441 Yusoff, K. M., Ashaari, N. S., Wook, T. S. M. T., & Ali, N. M. (2020).
Analysis on the requirements of computational thinking skills to overcome the difficulties in learning programming. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 11(3), 244–253. https://doi.org/10.14569/ijacsa.2020.0110329 Zhao, H., Li, M., Lin, T., Wang, R., & Wu, Z. (2021). ProLog2vec: Detecting novices’ difficulty in programming using deep learning. IEEE Access, 9, 53243–53254.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Naemah Abdul Wahab, Maisurah Shamsuddin, Jamal Othman, Rozita Kadar, Siti Balqis Mahlan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
