THE UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING STYLE AND ACHIEVEMENT IN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AMONGST UNDERGRADUATES AT FTSM

Abstract

Computer science involves studying dynamic and abstract concepts that are difficult for students to understand using traditional teaching and learning methods. The two most astonishing issues are the fact that students in Fakulti Teknologi dan Sains Maklumat (FTSM) ended up not improving their programming skills, and the lecturers do not teach according to student learning style. These have inspires these authors to conduct a research on Computer Science students' learning styles. The objectives of this study are to identify Computer Science students’ learning style;and to differentiate the learning styles of high achiever in Programming Design and Problem Solving course. An Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire was administered to 143 undergraduate students in FTSM. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics to measure students' learning style preferences in four ILS dimensions. Achievement in Programming Design and Problem Solving course between students of different learning styles was analyzedusing t-test and Spearman correlation. This study has found that for sense/intuition dimension, students are more likely to view information using their sense than intuition. Majority of students also prefer information presented visually than verbally whilefor sequential/global dimension, more students tend to understand information sequentially. This study also found that majority of students (80.4%) who tend to actively process information achieve lower gred in Programming Design and Problem Solving course compared to the minority students who tend to process information reflectively. Therefore, teaching modules in which students listen to lectures passively conflicted with the majority of students learning styles who tend to actively process information. Similarly, teaching theory and abstract involving textbook does not support the learning for the majority of students who tend to view information through sensing. These results could be used to guide the development of an online learning objects repository that aims for self-directed student learning

Keywords

• index of learning styles
• computer science education
• programming skill