Implicit theories of programming aptitude as a barrier to learning to code
Michael Scott, Gheorghiță Ghinea · 2013
Contemporary psychology has shown that self-theories can have a profound influence on affect and behavior. Entity-theorists, believing their traits are fixed, adopt maladaptive learning strategies in the face of difficulty. In contrast, incremental-theorists, believing their qualities can change, often adopt mastery-orientated strategies. However, can this concept be domain-specific? This poster presentation challenges the notion of a single dominant mindset. People can nurture a variety of beliefs about different traits, so in the minds of learners, programming aptitude may not be the same as intelligence. The results from a confirmatory factor analysis of 94 responses to an undergraduate programming experience survey indicate that beliefs towards aptitude are empirically distinct from those towards intelligence, suggesting that alternate self-traits should be considered when extending self-theories into specific domains.