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The impact of the medium of instruction: The case of teaching and learning of computer programming

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Abstract

Despite the seemingly good prospects in the Information Technology (IT) industry, the expected number of students who are interested in the relevant subjects has been limited. While numerous studies have explored the influence of various variables on programming course participation and performance at a personal level, there have been few studies conducted at a policy level. This study examined the impact of the medium of instruction (MOI) on student learning of computer programming in Hong Kong. It also examined the effects of gender and prior academic ability on programming performance. No gender differences in programming performance were found in the sample after prior academic ability was controlled. Prior academic ability affected performance differentially. Chinese-medium instructed students tended to outperform their English-medium instructed counterparts and middle and low-ability students in English-medium schools were notably at-risk. In view of these results, we argue that the MOI issue is further complicated by student ability. This provides a new understanding of the impact of the MOI on student learning. At a policy level, the results offer empirical evidence for policy-makers to rethink the current MOI policy. At a school level, we propose some metacognitive and cognitive strategies to address the needs of those at-risk learners. Finally, we intend to raise a series of questions that warrant further discussion and investigation.

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Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Thirteenth Postgraduate Research Conference, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, May 2008. The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their invaluable comments on this article.

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Correspondence to Wilfred W. F. Lau.

Annex 1

Annex 1

  1. 1.

    Sorting means

    1. a.

      to arrange data in an ascending order

    2. b.

      to arrange data in a descending order

    3. c.

      to arrange data in a certain specific order

    4. d.

      to arrange data in a random order

  2. 2.

    Sorting can be performed on data of type(s)

    1. a.

      integer

    2. b.

      character

    3. c.

      string

    4. d.

      all of the above

  3. 3.

    In general, sorting uses programming techniques of

    1. a.

      sequence and selection

    2. b.

      sequence and iteration

    3. c.

      selection and iteration

    4. d.

      sequence, selection, and iteration

  4. 4.

    What is the output of the following program?

    figure a
    1. a.

      1289

    2. b.

      2819

    3. c.

      2891

    4. d.

      1298

  5. 5.

    What is the output of the following program?

    figure b
    1. a.

      5327

    2. b.

      2357

    3. c.

      5237

    4. d.

      3257

  6. 6.

    What is the output of the following program?

    figure c
    1. a.

      0101

    2. b.

      0110

    3. c.

      1100

    4. d.

      0011

  7. 7.

    What is the output of the following program?

    figure d
    1. a.

      1010

    2. b.

      1100

    3. c.

      1001

    4. d.

      0011

  8. 8–11.

    There are 40 students in a class. A computer teacher wants to write a program to arrange the names of students alphabetically. Fill in the blanks for the following program.

    figure e
  1. 12.

    In a certain competition, only students who were born on or before 1989/1/1 are eligible to participate. You are required to write a program to sort students' records according to their date of birth from the eldest to the youngest. You may use "StudName" for the variable of student names and "DOB" for the variable of date of birth of students. This question will be assessed based on its syntax, semantic, and degree of completion. Try your best to write the program and don't leave it blank.

    figure f
  1. 13.

    In a certain year, a company wants to find out the top 10 performing branches and reward them for their performance. You are required to write a program to sort sales records according to their sales volume from the greatest to the smallest. You may use "BranchName" for the variable of branch names and "SalesVol" for the variable of sales volume. This question will be assessed based on its syntax, semantic, and degree of completion. Try your best to write the program and don't leave it blank.

    figure g

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Lau, W.W.F., Yuen, A.H.K. The impact of the medium of instruction: The case of teaching and learning of computer programming. Educ Inf Technol 16, 183–201 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-009-9118-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-009-9118-8

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