Share Paper: "I hate programming" and Other Oscillating Emotions Experienced by Novice Students Learning Computer Programming

  1. Jacqui Chetty, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
  2. Duan van der Westhuizen, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Tuesday, June 25 11:55 AM-12:15 PM Oak Bay 1

Abstract: Novice students’ experience strong emotions while learning to program. This is especially true when they are learning a threshold concept, as the action of crossing a threshold means walking through a “liminal space”. The liminal space is a transitional period where students experience oscillating emotions while trying to master a threshold concept. These emotions are rarely discussed in the field of computing and rarely mentioned in the literature associated with teaching-and-learning of computer programming. This paper describes such emotions and the paper reveals that there is no lack of emotional reactions while learning a threshold concept, program dynamics. As emotions ...