Examining self-efficacy perception and attitudes of introduction to programming course students with respect to gender and course language

The purpose of this study is to examine generalized self-efficacy and attitudes of the F.M.V. Işık University Engineering Faculty students of Introduction to Programming Course (CSE101) with respect to student gender and course language (Turkish-English). A total of 114 university students, 40 female and 74 male, participated in the research. In order to measure students' self-efficacy perceptions, General Self-Efficacy scale was used and open-ended questions were asked for evaluation of course outcomes (success and failure) and basic demographic information such as age and gender were collected. The open-ended questions were examined by qualitative analysis method. The quantitative analysis revealed a significant relation between the self-efficacy scores of the students with the General Grade Point Average (GPA); and a non-significant relation with the CSE101 end of term grade average. In addition, it was seen that students' self-efficacy scores did not significantly differ with respect to the gender and language (Turkish-English). The motivation scores of the students do not differ according to the course language. In qualitative analysis, we observed that the frequency percentages of the answers given by the students changed according to their genders. By revealing the gender difference in attitudes towards programming course, it is expected that this study will contribute to the process of determining the variables that predict student success in engineering programming education.