Education Commons^™

Motivation And Performance In Computer Science: Test Of An Integrative Theory, Katherine A. Selgrade

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to design and empirically test a parsimonious integrative motivation theory. The theory integrates aspects of expectancy theory, social cognitive theory, goal-setting theory, and commitment theory. The theory was tested with 170 undergraduate, students in an introductory computer science (CS) course.

The study tested relationships among the following variables: CS self-efficacy, mathematics ability, affective commitment to the CS class, goal orientation, effort, and performance. The study also tested the interactive effects of effort and ability on performance. Structural equation modeling was used to test the measurement model and a series of nested structural models. Findings …

Mathgirls: Toward Developing Girls’ Positive Attitude And Self-Efficacy Through Pedagogical Agents, Yanghee Kim, Q Wei, B Xu, Y Ko, V Ilieva

Yanghee Kim

MathGirls is a pedagogical-agent-based environment designed for high-school girls learning introductory algebra. Since females are in general more interested in interactive computing and more positive about the social presence of pedagogical agents, the environment provides a girl-friendly social learning environment, where pedagogical agents encourage the girls to build constructive views of learning math. This study investigated the impact of agent presence on changes in the girls’ math attitude, their math self-efficacy, and their learning; on the girls’ choice of their agents; and, on their perceptions of agent affability. The results revealed that the girls with an agent developed a more …