First year students' attitude to computer problem solving

Abstract

We have administered the extended attitude test of the Testing Algorithmic and Application Skills project (TAaAS) to reveal the computer problem solving approaches of first year students of informatics, their expectations considering tertiary studies, and their relationship with computer sciences/ informatics. The results clearly indicate that the students selected this major on their own, based on their previous experiences in informatics, but that these experiences caused misconceptions rather than creating a true picture of the nature of computer sciences. Based on the analysis of the students' answers, we concluded that they are in great need of institutional support, especially at the beginning of their tertiary studies, to introduce them to computer sciences/informatics. Beyond this, we have revealed another misconception that Software Engineering students tend to focus on the coding aspect of informatics, and especially those who have taken the advanced level school leaving exam are over-confident as regards their programming skills.