First exposure to Arduino through peer-coaching: Impact on students' attitudes towards programming

• Published in: Computers in human behavior Vol. 76; pp. 51 - 58
• Main Authors: Martín-Ramos, Pablo, Lopes, Maria João, Lima da Silva, M. Margarida, Gomes, Pedro E.B., Pereira da Silva, Pedro S., Domingues, José P.P., Ramos Silva, Manuela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elmsford Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Arduino; Attitudes survey; Colleges & universities; Experiential learning; High school; Peer coaching; Programming; Secondary school students; STEM education; Student behavior; Students; Technical education; Attitudes survey; Programming; Peer coaching; Arduino; High school
• ISSN: 0747-5632; 1873-7692
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.07.007

In this paper we report the work that jeKnowledge (Júnior Empresa da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias da Universidade de Coimbra), a student-led initiative, has done in the ‘jeKnowledge academy’ courses to actively engage Portuguese high-school students in STEM education through hands-on projects based on the low-cost Arduino platform. F2F activities, based on a peer-assisted learning strategy, were complemented with tutorials and more advanced project suggestions in a blog. Pre and post surveys on students' attitudes towards programming and peer-coaching were administered to pre-university and first year college participants, finding an overall increase in the Likert scale for all the programming-related constructs under study (confidence, interest, gender, usefulness and professional) after the introductory course. As regards the peer-based learning approach, younger students seemed to be more eager to be taught in a less formal way than their older counterparts. The course resulted in high degrees of satisfaction for both the student tutors and their tutees.
•Student-led introductory programming course for high-school students using Arduino.•Project-based approach for acquisition of computational thinking skills via PAL.•Pre and post surveys showed overall increase for all programming-related constructs.•Students totally agreed that women are as capable as men to excel in programming.•Significant age- and gender-related differences in attitude towards PAL were found.