Go to main content
Formats
Format
BibTeX
MARCXML
TextMARC
MARC
DublinCore
EndNote
NLM
RefWorks
RIS

Files

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand whether students who took computer science courses in a prescribed sequence during middle school developed a strong enough computing identity to show an interest in continuing to take computing courses in high school and possibly pursue a career in software development. This study was quantitative and non-experimental. The participants consisted of 184 sixth through eighth grade students, across 15 middle schools enrolled in one of five computer science courses in a large urban district in the southeast region of the United States. The instrument used to analyze a student’s overall computing identity was a survey form that consisted of 11 statements, of which nine were slightly modified from the model research by Mahadeo et al. (2020). Two questions were added to investigate a student’s aspirations to take more software development in high school and their intention of pursuing a career in software development. All questions were answered on a five-point Likert-type scale. Six research questions were constructed for this study to compare computing identity development regarding courses, pathways, race, Title I status, and interest in coding beyond middle school. This study used descriptive statistics, F-test, and ANOVA to capture a broad understanding of the development of computing identity in middle school students who were taking computer science courses in a sequenced pathway. There were three findings: modification of the statements did not impact the overall structure of the tool, computer science pathways were not implemented with fidelity, and there was a strong likelihood students with a high computing identity would also have a high interest in taking more courses in high school and pursuing a career in software development.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History