Students’ Initial Course Motivation and Their Achievement and Retention in Undergraduate Computer Science Courses

Presentation given at American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.

The study goal was to investigate how students’ entering motivation for introductory computer science courses was associated with subsequent course achievement and retention. Students’ goal orientations (learning, performance, task), perceived instrumentality (endogenous, exogenous), future career connectedness, self-efficacy, and implicit intelligence theory (incremental or entity) were examined. Although students’ entering motivation beliefs were highly positive, these beliefs were relatively weak predictors of achievement and retention, except for students in an honors course. Students who set learning approach goals had better grades and retention. Other motivational beliefs were inconsistent in their impacts, varying by course and student population. Findings suggest impacts of the course itself on motivation and how motivation changes during the semester are perhaps more important than student’s initial motivation.