The influence of motivation and comfort-level on learning to program

Abstract. This paper documents a study, carried out in the academic year 2004-; 2005, on the role of motivation and comfort-level in a first year object-oriented; programming module. The study found that intrinsic motivation had a strong correlation; with programming performance as did self-efficacy for learning and performance,; r=0.512, p < 0.01 and r=0.567, p < 0.01 respectively. Aspects of; comfort level were found to have significant correlations with performance with; an instrument on programming-esteem rendering the most interesting results. A; regression model based upon these factors was able to account for 60% of the; variance in programming performance results.