Abstract
In Japan, the development of human resources with programming skills has become an urgent issue. Meanwhile, the experience of learning programming varies from learner to learner. Interest in programing may differ depending on each learner’s area of expertise. Thus, this study aimed to investigate learners’ learning experiences and attitudes toward computer programming. A questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale was distributed to 117 Japanese university students from three classes: one in science and two in humanities. The findings suggest three main points: (1) A little more than 40% of students in humanities and two- thirds of the students in science did not have any programming experience—these numbers were higher than we expected. (2) Regarding students’ awareness of programming skills use in their future careers, the average scores for all three classes reached 4 or higher, suggesting that both science and humanities students were fully aware of the importance of programming skills, although such responses were significantly higher among the science students. (3) Regarding interest in computer programming, the average score for both humanities classes was 3.1, whereas that for the science class was 4.5, which shows that interest in programming was significantly lower among humanities students. Furthermore, the results from the two humanities classes indicated that, of the students who indicated little or no interest in computer programming, 50% (humanities class 1) and approximately 70% (humanities class 2) had never learned programming. Liberal arts students’ experience in learning programming may be affected by their interest in it.
Author Information
Harumi Kashiwagi, Institute for Promotion of Higher Education, Kobe University, Japan
Min Kang, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan
Kazuhiro Ohtsuki, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University, Japan
Paper Information
Conference: ACEID2023
Stream: Higher education
This paper is part of the ACEID2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Kashiwagi H., Kang M., & Ohtsuki K. (2023) Japanese University Students’ Learning Experiences and Attitudes Toward Computer Programming ISSN: 2189-101X – The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2023 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 563-577) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2023.46
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2023.46
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