DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING CORE PROGRAMMING COURSES:

IN A SPECIFIC SCHOOL

__________________________________

A Research Presented to the

Senior High School Department

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For Practical Research
TVL-PROGRAMMING

__________________________________________________________

Mulo Joshua C.

Researcher
 Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Problematic Issues
Research Questions
Theoretical Lens
Concept Map
Related Literature
Chapter 2. Method
Research Design
Research Participants
Data Sources
Data Collection Procedure
Trustworthiness of the Study
Role of the Participants
Role of the Researchers
Ethical Consideration
Chapter 3. Results
Chapter 4. Discussions
Implication for Practice
References (APA)
Appendices
Letter for Permission
Interview Questionnaire
 Chapter 1
Introduction
Problematic Issues
On an international scale, In Malaysia, particularly in Unversiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris,
the head of the Department of Computing, Siti Rosminah MdDerus with the head of the
Department of Creative Multimedia, Ahmad ZamzuriMohamad Ali stated that over 105
polytechnic students in the Electrical Engineering Department, who undergo the
Fundamental Programming course. Faced difficulties in understanding the basic
concept of programming structure and designing a program to solve certain tasks
(Ahmad Ali, 2012)

In the Philippines, according to Joey Gurango, former president of the Philippine

Software Industry Association (PSIA). He and his company, Gurango Software Corp.
(GSC), administered the first Proxor examinations the in the Philippines. It is an exam
that takes 6 hours to complete and composes coding, debugging, and compiling in an
IDE environment. 558 students took from 10 colleges and universities in Metro Manila
and 18 other colleges outside Metro Manila participated. 48% of the students passed
the exam and 52% didn’t and Joey Gurango stated that FilipinoIT students lack
programming skills (Ike Suarez, 2017)

Furthermore, in AMA Computer College of Davao City, some of the grade 11 novices
are having a difficult time learning basic core programming. From language to grammar
to structure and some of them are considering to change courses.

Research Questions
This research aims to explore the views of the senior high school students of AMA
Computer College Davao City and the experiences while learning core programming
courses objectives are as of followed:

1. What are the views and experiences of the students about learning the programming
courses?

2. What are the complexion while learning core programming courses?

3. What are the factors that might lead students to switch courses?
 Theoretical Lens

Learning programming isn't easy. Despite the efforts of the teachers, many students still
find programming difficult. According to multi-national studies, students have problems
in designing software (Tenenberg et al., 2005), and in writing program code (McCracken
et al., 2001). Since it is proven that understanding computer programs is highly
consequential task for most learners, a variety of techniques have been suggested for
beginner programmers to patronage the learning process such as visualization.
Visualization can be used in connecting new information with old knowledge in order to
provide learning models (Hyrskykari, 1993). In addition, the reference list of visualization
systems contains references to the system in which hundreds of more simple tools and
procedure libraries assist program visualization and animation.

Figure 1- Concept Map

Independent Variable: Dependent Variable:
1. Difficulties in Learning 1. Views of AMA students in
Programming
programming
[Link] factors that lead
students to switch course
3. Overviews to help learning
programming

Difficulties in learning programming, the independent variable will serve as an

evaluation of the awareness of AMA Computer College Davao City students that will
give us reasons why novice students are having a hard time at programming.
Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies of the sub-topics of
this research; Programming, Programming Difficulties

In recent years has greatly increased the interest in Computer Science, particularly at
secondary schools. In this regard, several countries have carried out thorough
investigations of the use of information technology and courses on Computer Science in
different educational institutions, which analyses have shown that most of the courses
do not meet learners’ needs (Minorva, Amitan and Vilipõld, 2017).

Computer programming is a way of giving computers instructions about what they

should do next. These instructions are known as code, and computer programmers
write code to solve problems or perform a task.

The end goal is to create something: that could mean anything from a web page, or a
piece of software, or even just a pretty picture. That’s why computer programming is
often described as a mix between art and science; it’s technical and analytical, yet
creative at the same time (McCandless, 2018).

Computers can do amazing things, from basic laptops capable of simple word
processing and spreadsheet functions to incredibly complex supercomputers
completing millions of financial transactions a day and controlling the infrastructure that
makes modern life possible. But no computer can do anything until designed to behave
in specific ways. That's what computer programming is. At its most basic, computer
programming is little more than a set of instructions to facilitate specific actions.
Computer programmers create instructions for a computer to act upon by writing and
testing code to enable applications and software programs to operate successfully.
Based on the requirements or purpose for these instructions, computer programming
can be as simple as taking two numbers and adding them together. It can also be as
complex as reading data from temperature sensors to adjust a thermostat, sorting data
to complete intricate scheduling or critical reports or taking players through multi-layered
worlds and challenges in games (Stokdyk, 2018).
Developing a program involves a series of steps. The programmer defines a problem,
plans a solution, codes the program, tests the program and, finally, documents the
program. Usually, the programmer defines what he knows and the objective, selects a
program to use, debugs the program in stages after completion to ensure no errors are
introduced and then documents the design, development and testing of the program.
With the ever-changing face of computer technology, programming is an exciting and
always challenging environment that few programmers ever dream of leaving (Gitonga,
2018).

Programming is hard actually…only if you don’t have the persistence to learn..and what
makes it more hard is that, you’re on your own usually with no one to guide you. That’s
one reason why there’s a huge amount of shortage in talent pools. The learning curve
for each technology is quite intimidating and exhausting to boot. You can’t expect to
master each of them in just one month or so. There’s a lot of things you need to pay
attention before you can actually publish your app to the production server or in play
store.

Now why is this the case? Is programming really that hard? Let’s try to examine what
makes programming so hard than any other carer right now.

You have no reference point to start your learning

Sure there are bazillions of tutorials hanging around on the internet to guide you….but,
which one is legit and high quality? That’s another issue. What tutorials are reliable and
not delivering garbage contents? It’s hard to determine where you should start your
journey with lots of technologies to learn alone. And lots of tutorials you have to select
(Recio, 2017).

You need deep concentration to make progress

Programming requires intense concentration in order for you to make huge progress in
something that you’re making (Recio, 2017).

Your learnings will get obsolete

One of the most frustrating and outrageous things you’ll encounter as programmer is,
your studies and learnings of the past will get obsolete easily. This is one of the
professions where you need to “re-skill” in order to get stable in the [Link] this
challenge alone is enough to confuse you and will make you question whether what
you’ve learned in the past was really worth it. (Recio, 2017)
 Chapter 2

Method

Research Design

The researchers conducted a qualitative research. Qualitative research is a type

of social science research that collects and works with non-numerical data and that
seeks to interpret meaning from these data that help us understand social life through
the study of targeted populations or places. People often frame it in opposition to
quantitative research, which uses numerical data to identify large-scale trends and
employs statistical operations to determine causal and correlative relationships between
variable (Ashley Crossman, 2019)

Methods of Qualitative Research

Qualitative researchers use their own eyes, ears, and intelligence to collect in-depth
perceptions and descriptions of targeted populations, places, and events. Their findings
are collected through a variety of methods, and often, a researcher will use at least two
or several of the following while conducting a qualitative study.

Direct observation: With direct observation, a researcher studies people as they go

about their daily lives without participating or interfering. This type of research is often
unknown to those under study, and as such, must be conducted in public settings where
people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. For example, a researcher
might observe the ways in which strangers interact in public as they gather to watch a
street performer.

Open-ended surveys: While many surveys are designed to generate quantitative data,
many are also designed with open-ended questions that allow for the generation and
analysis of qualitative data. For example, a survey might be used to investigate not just
which political candidates’ voters chose, but why they chose them, in their own words.

Focus group: In a focus group, a researcher engages a small group of participants in a

conversation designed to generate data relevant to the research question. Focus
groups can contain anywhere from 5 to 15 participants. Social scientists often use them
in studies that examine an event or trend that occurs within a specific community. They
are common in market research too.

In-depth interviews: Researchers conduct in-depth interviews by speaking with

participants in a one-on-one setting. Sometimes a researcher approaches the interview
with a predetermined list of questions or topics for discussion but allows the
conversation to evolve based on how the participant responds. Other times, the
researcher has identified certain topics of interest but does not have a formal guide for
the conversation, but allows the participant to guide it.

Oral history: The oral history method is used to create a historical account of an event,
group, or community, and typically involves a series of in-depth interviews conducted
with one or multiple participants over an extended period of time.

Participant observation: This method is similar to observation, however with this one,
the researcher also participates in the action or events in order to not only observe
others but to gain the first-hand experience in the setting.

Ethnographic observation: Ethnographic observation is the most intensive and in-

depth observational method. Originating in anthropology, with this method, a researcher
fully immerses herself into the research setting and lives among the participants as one
of them for anywhere from months to years. By doing this, the researcher attempts to
experience day-to-day existence from the viewpoints of those studied in order to
develop in-depth and long-term accounts of the community, events, or trends under
observation.

Content analysis: This method is used by sociologists to analyze social life by

interpreting words and images from documents, film, art, music, and other cultural
products and media. The researchers look at how the words and images are used, and
the context in which they are used to draw inferences about the underlying culture. In
the last decade, content analysis of digital material, especially that generated by social
media users, has become a popular technique within the social sciences.(Ashley
Crossman, 2019)

Research Participants

The researchers focused on thirty (30) students of AMA Computer College

Davao City, who are taking TVL-ICT Programming as there strand.

Data Sources

In this study, the researchers used simple methods to collect the needed data.

Data Collection Procedure

In finishing this study, the researchers:

[Link] for permission. A letter was sent to the Senior High School
Coordinator and the professor of our research subject of AMA Computer College Davao
City to ask a consent to conduct the study.
 [Link] an Interview. Upon approval of both the research professor and
the Senior High School Student, the researchers personally interviewed thirty (30)
participants.

3. Analyzed the gathered Data. After the interview, the researchers will analyze
the collected information.

Trustworthiness of the study