Development and verification of the programming resilience scale for university students

Abstract

Learning programming challenges students who encounter difficulties such as resolving syntax and format errors. These challenges require students to invoke resilience to overcome programming problems and keep trying. In response, this study developed the programming resilience scale for university students (PRSUS). The snowball-sampling method was used to collect the data of science and engineering undergraduates, and the participants were divided into two groups (n1 = 316, n2 = 358) for an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. For the PRSUS, 3 items were retained for each of 4 dimensions, namely: persistence, perceived value, difficulty cognition, and incremental belief. The reliability and validity indexes indicate the scale is reliable for measuring programming resilience. Moreover, the results showed that most undergraduates had a high level of programming resilience, and they could judge their level correctly in comparison to their peers. The study also found that, although no significant difference was found among the grade or age groups, the programming resilience of the male students was significantly better than that of the female students. The PRSUS is expected to help researchers and teachers to identify students who have difficulties learning programming and to provide early interventions to students.

Implications for practice or policy:

• Students can use the PRSUS to test if they have a high level of programming resilience and improve their programming resilience in a targeted way.
• Educators can use the PRSUS to identify students who find it difficult to finish programming learning or to judge whether their teaching can make students more willing to overcome programming difficulties.