The Impact of Different Teaching Approaches and Languages on Student Learning of Introductory Programming Concepts

Learning to program, especially in the object-oriented paradigm, is a difficult undertaking for many students. As a result, computing educators have tried a variety of instructional methods to assist beginning programmers. These include developing approaches geared specifically toward novices and experimenting with different introductory programming languages. However, determining the effectiveness of these interventions poses a problem. The research presented here developed an instrument to assess student learning of fundamental and object-oriented programming concepts, then used that instrument to investigate the impact of different teaching approaches and languages on university students’ ability to learn those concepts. Extensive data analysis showed that the instrument performed well overall. Reliability of the assessment tool was statistically satisfactory and content validity was supported by intrinsic characteristics, question response analysis, and expert review. Preliminary support for construct validity was provided through exploratory factor analysis. Three components that at least partly represented the construct “understanding of fundamental programming concepts” were identified: methods and functions, mathematical and logical expressions, and control structures. Analysis revealed significant differences in student performance based on instructional language and approach. The analyses showed differences on the overall score and questions involving assignment, mathematical and logical expressions, and code completion. Instructional language and approach did not appear to affect student performance on questions addressing object-oriented concepts.

https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2785807

2. Development of an English for Academic Purposes course using content and language integrated learning approach to enhance reading and writing skills of undergraduate students / Burajt Phoodokmai

The objectives of this research were to develop an English for Academic Purposes course (EAP) using CLIL approach. The participants were 37 undergraduate students studying at Udon Thani Rajabhat University and enrolled in English for Academic Purposes as a required course in semester 2, academic year 2011. The instruments used in this research were the achievement test, a unit/lesson plan, observation form, and learning log. The data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative statistics using arithmetic means scores, standard deviation, t-test, frequency, and percentage. The findings of the study revealed that: (1) The developed course of EAP using CLIL approach enhanced the students’ reading and writing skills as evidenced by the average scores on the post-test of the Achievement test being significantly higher than the pre-test of the Achievement test scores at the significant level of 0.05, and (2) The developed course of EAP using CLIL approach enhanced students’ engagement in classroom activities as evidenced by the observable checklists of each stage which showed the students’ engagement in classroom activities significantly increased according to the frequency of time on level 3 (students engaged in the classroom activities most of the time). Additionally, learning log found that students had positive attitude towards EAP course using CLIL approach. These findings confirm that the developed course using CLIL approach helped improve students’ reading and writing skills, and also increasingly enhanced the students’ engagement in classroom activities

https://library.car.chula.ac.th/search?/d{u0E20}{u0E32}{u0E29}{u0E32}{u0E2D}{u0E31}{u0E07}/d|c0d2c9d2cdd1a7a1c4c9+a1d2c3c8d6a1c9d2c5e1d0a1d2c3cacdb9+cdd8b4c1c8d6a1c9d2/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=d|c0d2c9d2cdd1a7a1c4c9+a1d2c3c8d6a1c9d2c5e1d0a1d2c3cacdb9+cdd8b4c1c8d6a1c9d2+bcd9e9bed9b4c0d2c9d2b5e8d2a7bbc3d0b7e0c8&1%2C%2C2

3. Academic Advisors and Their Diverse Advisees: Towards More Ethical Global Universities

In this comparative content analysis, job postings for academic advising personnel from U.S. and Canadian higher education institutions were examined to ascertain expectations for job candidates in terms of skills and duties, educational requirements, and compensation. Fifty-three job descriptions from 18 research-intensive, public universities were collected for this study. The findings show that institutions expect academic advisors to be multitalented and skilled professionals, but that calls for experience working with international students are limited, despite the rising importance of internationalization in higher education.

4. Comparative Analysis of Rote Learning on High and Low Achievers in Graduate and Undergraduate Programs

A survey was conducted to study the preferred learning strategies; that is, surface learning or deep learning of undergraduate and graduate male and female students and the impact of the preferred strategy on their academic performance. Both learning strategies help university students to get good scores in their examinations to meet the demands of industry in workforce. Quantitative research method was used to determine the impact of learning strategy on academic achievements. The R-SPQ2F questionnaire was sent to 103 students through Google forms and hard copies through snowball sampling technique. The results show that rote learning and academic performance are inversely related to each other. In high achievers, deep learning is significant as compared to low achievers. Furthermore, comparative analysis of learning styles on males and females showed that both preferred deep learning strategy equally. Learning strategy is not related to education level of students because there is no difference among preferred learning strategies of graduate and undergraduate students.

https://eric.ed.gov/?q=comparative+learning&id=EJ1161522

5. Comparative Study on the Learning Performance between Web-Based Distance Learning and Classroom Learning

Based on comparative study, the paper mainly concentrates on the learning performance between Web-based distance education and classroom education. A experimental school in Xinjiang has been selected as research object in this study. To be specific, researches from 3 point of view have been designed to analyze the influence of learning style on learning performance in Xinjiang. Generally the purpose of this study is to find the approach to enhance learning performance of distance education learner and to promote distance education cause in remote and undeveloped areas.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5070301