������

Title of the thesis: On the role of motivational and affective factors as experienced by programming students

Thesis defender: Hannu Pesonen 
Opponent: Professor Arnold Pears, KTH  Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden 
Custos: Professor Lauri Malmi., Aalto University School of Science

Passing a CS1 course is demanding for a typical novice, and high dropout rates are not uncommon. We explored with distinct theoretical backgrounds what kind of reasons CS students have for learning. A student may feel pressure to complete a course or, by contrast, find it valuable – exhibiting extrinsic motivations. For others, intrinsic motivation may dominate, whereby learning is characterized by interest and enjoyment. Motivation has also been conceptualized such that we are oriented either towards learning for the sake of it or towards outperforming others. 

Our research findings indicate that the role of motivation depends on the context and on how motivation is conceptualized. We observed that CS1 students can have distinct motivational profiles, with different “mixes” of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. However, students of all motivational profiles performed well in the CS1 course. Our research further showed that CS1 course performance was positively predicted by intrinsic motivation but negatively predicted by self-reported time spent during the course. Motivation was observed to fluctuate from week to week in the CS1 courses studied, and the variation depended on the course. We further found that being oriented towards learning rather than towards outperforming others was most consistently associated with course performance. 

We also explored students’ affective experiences during a CS course: students repeatedly reported their emotions, mapping them two-dimensionally according to their level of pleasantness and activation (e.g., feeling anxious or bored). Our results exhibited richness in students’ during-the-course emotions in both their pleasantness and activation dimension; however, only pleasantness predicted course performance. 

Furthermore, we researched students’ relatively stable experiences: Self-reported social aspect, meaning of studies, independence and self-efficacy. The latter three predicted CS1 performance. In addition, we investigated the topic of individual and collective factors in students’ pandemic-era well-being experiences. We observed that a lack of social interaction had a devastating effect on students’ well-being, motivation and meaning of studies. 

Our research shows that students come with various motivations and that can impact their course performance. Supporting students to discover what makes CS learning interesting, enjoyable and pleasant to them and fostering a social and communal aspect in CS are indicated.

Keywords: motivation, introductory programming, states, traits, intrinsic motivation, meaning, student engagement

Thesis available for public display 7 days prior to the defence at . 

Contact Information: 
hannu.a.pesonen@gmail.com