Connecting beliefs, mindsets, anxiety and self-efficacy in computer science learning: an instrument for capturing secondary school students’ self-beliefs

ABSTRACT

Background and Context

Few instruments exist to measure students’ CS engagement and learning especially in areas where coding happens with creative, project-based learning and in regard to students’ self-beliefs about computing.

Objective

We introduce the CS Interests and Beliefs Inventory (CSIBI), an instrument designed for novice secondary students learning by designing projects (particularly with physical computing). The inventory contains subscales on beliefs on problem solving competency, fascination in design, value of CS, creative expression, and beliefs about context-specific CS abilities alongside programming mindsets and outcomes. We explain the creation of the instrument and attend to the role of mindsets as mediators of self-beliefs and how CSIBI may be adapted to other K-12 project-based learning settings.

Method

We administered the instrument to 303 novice CS secondary students who largely came from historically marginalized backgrounds (gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status). We assessed the nine-factor structure for the 32-item instrument using confirmatory factor analysis and tested the hypothesized model of mindsets as mediators with structural equation modeling.

Findings

We confirmed the nine-factor structure of CSIBI and found significant positive correlations across factors. The structural model results showed that problem solving competency beliefs and CS creative expression promoted programming growth mindset, which subsequently fostered students’ programming self-concept.

Implications

We validated an instrument to measure secondary students’ self-beliefs in CS that fills several gaps in K-12 CS measurement tools by focusing on contexts of learning by designing. CSIBI can be easily adapted to other learning by designing computing education contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• self-beliefs
• mindset
• anxiety
• physical computing
• creativity
• non-cognitive factors

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Yasmin Kafai (#1742140). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF, Cal State University Pomona, the University of Pennsylvania, or Utah State University. Special thanks to Justice Toshiba Walker and Debora Lui for their support in designing the survey instrument and to Gayithri Jayathirtha for her assistance in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly. Supporting data is not available.

Research ethics and consent statement

We recruited students already enrolled in introductory computer science high-school classes. A researcher visited the classes virtually to invite students to participate in the study. In discussion with Institutional Review Board authorities, we decided to waive consent as part of the data collection process. This was a conscious choice to support broader participation in the survey at a time when schools in the study were entirely virtual due to health guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Since consent was waived, we did not collect individual identifiers and/or any racial/ethnic demographic information that could make data identifiable to a single student. The school-wide demographic data included in this study were publicly available information. Students did not receive any incentives for participating in the study. Research protocols and data collection methods were approved by the IRB board of the University of Pennsylvania (Protocol: 827747).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Because of the timing of the study during Spring 2021 with schools still operating virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was significant attrition for the post-tests. For a study with limited findings studying only the post-test across an intervention and comparison groups, see Morales-Navarro et al. (2023).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1742140].

Notes on contributors

Luis Morales-Navarro

Luis Morales-Navarro is a doctoral student in the Learning Sciences and Technologies program at the University of Pennsylvania. His current research focuses on youth’s computational empowerment and studying novice programmer experiences debugging physical computing and machine learning powered applications.

Michael T. Giang

Michael T. Giang is a professor of psychology at Cal Poly Pomona. He is an educational psychologist with research and publications on issues of peer harassment/victimization in schools, (online) racism and prejudice, intergroup relations, identity development, online technologies, and STEM learning and identity. He has taught courses across multiple areas of psychology (e.g., social, developmental, and health psychology; research methods; statistics; technology & learning; program evaluation). He has contributed substantial work to the areas of learning analytics of kids’ activities in online worlds like Whyville and Scratch.

Deborah A. Fields

Deborah A. Fields. Fields is an associate research professor of instructional technology and learning sciences at Utah State University. In her research, she seeks to inspire and advocate for children’s creative expression with digital media, coding, and everyday craft materials. She works to break down stereotypes regarding who can create with digital media and computing. This includes projects which create educational opportunities in computer science to design with sewable electronics or the popular programming environment, Scratch. This interest carries over into the growing phenomenon of child-generated digital content in online environments. Her work has appeared in journals such as Mind, Culture and Activity, the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, and the Harvard Educational Review. She authored Connected Play: Tweens in a Virtual Worlds (2013; with Yasmin Kafai). Fields is a fellow of the International Society of Design and Development in Education.

Yasmin B. Kafai

Yasmin B. Kafai is professor of learning sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a researcher and developer of tools, communities, and materials for the promotion of computational participation, crafting, and creativity across K-16. She recently authored Connected Code: Why Children Need to Learn Programming (2014), Connected Gaming: What Making Videogames Can Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (both with Quinn Burke), and Connected Play: Tweens in a Virtual Worlds (2013; with Deborah Fields) and co-edited Textile Messages: Dispatches from the World of Electronic Textiles and Education (2013; with Leah Buechley, Kylie A. Peppler, and Michael Eisenberg) and Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (2008; with Carrie Heeter, Jill Denner, and Jennifer Y. Sun). Kafai earned a doctorate in education from Harvard University while working with Seymour 20 L. MORALES-NAVARRO ET AL. Papert at the MIT Media Lab. She is an elected fellow of the American Educational Research Association and of the International Society for the Learning Sciences.