Duan van der Westhuizen

Situating the Student: Factors Contributing to Success in an Information Technology Course

The modern world is becoming increasingly digitalised and this is affecting the way in which humans not only live but also learn. In South Africa, the majority of students entering universities are from disadvantaged backgrounds and come from schools and communities in which they were not exposed to the same technologically rich environments as perhaps that of their fellow students. The digital literacy level at which all students enter university is thus different; yet on entering their first year of study, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are required to perform at the same level as those from advantaged backgrounds. This paper examines the role that pre‐existing levels of digital literacy, critical thinking skills, socio‐economic status and English proficiency play on the academic performance of first‐year students studying an Information Technology course.

Towards a pedagogical design for teaching novice programmers: design-based research as an empirical determinant for success

Research and experience indicates that students enrolled for CS1 often perform poorly. On this basis we propose a pedagogical design for CS1 within the context of South Africa, where students are often under-prepared for the challenges of higher education. The pedagogy was designed and implemented using a design-based research (DBR) approach over a period of two iterative cycles. The outcome of the design research is a set of eight design principles that have been implemented within the local context. Although further research is needed to test the design more rigorously, results to date are promising. Overwhelmingly, students perceived the design to be beneficial to their learning. Further, success rates in the course improved dramatically.

Problem Solving as a Predictor of Programming Performance

The purpose of this paper is to establish what correlation exists between students’ problem solving ability and their academic performance in 1st-year programming courses. The students’ achievement in the programming courses is specified as the dependent variable and four programming aptitude tests for logical reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and verbal logic are specified as the independent variables. The study group consists of 379 students. Our findings show a correlation between students’ logical reasoning, numerical reasoning and verbal logic and performance in computer programming modules. The correlation between students’ non-verbal reasoning and performance in computer programming modules was, however, not significant.

Pre-entry Attributes Thought to Influence the Performance of Students in Computer Programming

This study attempted to isolate seven pre-entry attributes that were thought to influence the performance of students in the module Development Software 1 (programming). The pre-entry attributes included students’ problem solving ability, socio-economic status, educational background, performance in school Mathematics, English language proficiency, digital literacy and previous programming experience. We asked to what extent these pre-entry attributes influence our students’ performance in computer programming. We found a correlation between the problem solving, digital literacy and previous programming experience with performance in programming. No correlation was found between socio-economic status, educational background, Grade 12 Mathematics and English marks with performance in programming.

ICT in education

Extracted from text ... EDITORIAL 1 ICT in education The unifying theme of this edition of Education as Change is Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. This special edition finds itself amongst several other journals with this theme, including Computers & Education, The British Journal of Educational Technology, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Education and Information Technologies, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia. In addition, several conferences are held annually, of which e-LEARN, ED-MEDIA and Online Educa are some of the largest. It is clear that the use of ICT for learning is deeply entrenched in ..