The Effects of Prior Computer Experience and Gender on High School Students' Learning of Computer Science Concepts from Instructional Simulations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of prior computer knowledge and gender on high school novices' learning of computer science concepts from instructional simulations designed based an experiential-based pedagogical perspective. There were 94 10th-graders taking the introducto...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ming-Puu Chen
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational modeling
Computer science
computer science concepts
Computers
Educational institutions
experiential learning
instructional simulation
Object oriented modeling
Problem-solving
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of prior computer knowledge and gender on high school novices' learning of computer science concepts from instructional simulations designed based an experiential-based pedagogical perspective. There were 94 10th-graders taking the introductory course on computer science identified as the low and high prior computer knowledge in this study. Participants' motivation and perceived-usefulness toward the employed instructional simulations and performance were evaluated. A quasi-experimental study was employed to examine the effects of prior computer knowledge and gender on dependent measures. The results indicated that (a) the high-prior-knowledge learners possessed higher motivation and perceived-usefulness toward the employed instructional simulations, (b) males revealed higher motivation and perceived-usefulness than females, (c) females outperformed males on the performance evaluation, and finally, (d) the low prior computer knowledge learners performed as well as the high-prior-knowledge learners while learning from instructional simulations.
ISSN:2161-3761
2161-377X
DOI:10.1109/ICALT.2010.173