Adam Basigie Mtaho*

Department of ICT, Arusha Technical College, Tanzania

*Corresponding Author: Adam Basigie Mtaho, Department of ICT, Arusha Technical College, Tanzania.

Received: October 29, 2021; Published: November 10, 2021

Abstract

CS1 and CS2 are two fundamental programming courses in Computer Science (CS) education. Mostly, CS1 focuses on basic algorithm design and programming concepts while CS2 introduces more advanced data abstractions and data structures. There is a general consensus that for successful learning of CS2 courses, students must learn and pass CS1 at least with a satisfactory level before learning CS2. To date, there are limited empirical studies that have examined the factors that can influence students who initially failed CS1 to pass CS2. The aim of this study was twofold; first to determine if there exist a substantial number of students who failed CS1 but managed to successfully pass CS2; and second, to examine the factors that influenced the success of CS2. The subjects of the study were 736 undergraduate students who were studying a CS2 course at the College of Informatics and Virtual Education (CIVE) of the University of Dodoma in Tanzania. The study employed a mixed research approach. Data were collected by using documentary review (students’ examination reports), questionnaires and interview methods. Data from 2013-2018 examination reports and questionnaire were analyzed by using descriptive statistics while data from students´ interviews was analyzed by using the content analysis method. Results show that within a period of five consecutive years from 2013-2018, 20.52% of the students who failed CS1 at CIVE managed to pass CS2. The key factors that were identified to influence the students’ success of CS2 despite their failure in CS1 were the tendency of the students who failed CS1 to build new confidence after the initial failure, the change of student living and learning styles, reviewing programming thresholds, and avoiding rote learning. To help students understand CS1 and CS2, the study recommends instructors who teach programming to motivate students and use teaching strategies that encourage self-efficacy attitudes among the students.

Keywords: CS1; CS2; Programming; Computer Science; Failure Rate in CS2

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Citation

Citation: Adam Basigie Mtaho. “Factors that Influence the Success of the CS2 for Students Who Failed CS1 Programming Course". Acta Scientific Computer Sciences 3.12 (2021): 30-37.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Adam Basigie Mtaho.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.