Abstract

Self-efficacy refers to the belief in one’s ability to perform a task and to attain a goal It is a strong predictor of the level of motivation and persistency for a task, and of ultimate task performance A strong self-efficacy in computing, especially one that is established at an early age, contributes significantly to students’ motivations to continue work in the field One effective way of creating a strong sense of self-efficacy is to let students learn how to overcome difficulties through the experience of failures, but in a supportive and low risk setting We designed a High-Challenge and Low-Stakes principle that aims to help elementary-aged students establish an early computing self-efficacy Our approach is applied to a co-ed introductory computing program for 3rd-5th graders The qualitative and quantitative evaluation results indicate that the program is equally beneficial to students regardless of their gender in improving their computing knowledge and attitude

Citation

Jin, K. & Silva Pimentel, D. (2018). High-Challenge and Low-Stakes: On Improving Elementary Students’ Self-Efficacy in Computing. In E. Langran & J. Borup (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 25-30). Washington, D.C., United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved September 1, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/182497/.

© 2018 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)