Attitudes and self-efficacy in young adults' computing autobiographies

Little is known about the formation of people’s first perceptions about computers and computer code, yet it is likely that these impressions have a lasting effect on peoples’ use of technology in their lives and careers. Brief autobiographical essays about these first impressions were solicited from a diverse population of young adults and these essays were analyzed for factors that contributed to positive and negative attitudes about technology, formation of self-efficacy, and authors’ relationship with computing later in life. The results suggest that first encounters with code must be accessible, error-tolerant and socially engaging, that mentorship can be a crucial factor in the acquisition of programming skills, and that cultivating positive selfefficacy in programming skills requires repeated positive exposure across the lifespan. These results raise several issues for novice programming languages and tools and suggest a number of new approaches to computing education.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: VL
• Authors: Andrew J. Ko
• Keywords: Brief Autobiographical Essays, Languages, Novice Programming Languages, Programming Skills, VL 2009