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Replication in Ecuador of a multinational study on performance of programming students

Abstract:

We present a replication at ESPOCH (an Ecuadorian university) of the well-known multinational, multiinstitutional study conducted by a working group at the ITiCSE 2004 conference, known as the Leeds group. The paper has three main contributions. Firstly, we found that most of the results are in common with the Leeds group ten years after. Secondly, we found some interesting differences, specific of the Ecuadorian context. ESPOCH students performed worse than students evaluated by the Leeds group. They also had more problems than expected with some pbkp_redictive questions, as well as with some constructs of the C language. These problems may be explained by lower intrinsic motivation, by their reluctance to analyze code, and by some pedagogical decisions on programming courses. Thirdly, we did not find significant differences between male and female students, although we detected some tendencies. From the research point of view, we refined the analysis methodology used by the Leeds group. From a practical point of view, findings can be used at the university to enhance the quality of their programming education.