Experience Helps, but It Isn't Everything: Exploring Causes of Affective State in Novice Programmers

Affective state, referring to an individual's feeling, can impact students' confidence and retention in CS, particularly for novice programmers. However, little research has been conducted to examine how moments that occur during programming impact students' affective states in real-time. In this pilot study, seven undergraduate students in an introductory block-based programming course completed a programming assignment and were surveyed and interviewed about their experience and self-efficacy as programmers. While programming, students periodically recorded their affective states via a popup in the programming environment. We performed retrospective think-aloud interviews with students afterward, asking them to watch and reflect on recordings of their programming. We subsequently analyzed student interviews using thematic analysis to derive 206 codes. These codes were grouped into three areas that impacted affect: the environment, objective progress, and perceptions during programming. To explore why students responded as they did to moment occurrence, we further categorized students based on four dimensions: programming experience, assignment completion, confidence, and the impact of the programming session on self-efficacy. Our initial results suggest that while certain moments elicit similar affective states among students, the interaction of the aforementioned four dimensions may have a higher impact on novices' affective states during programming. We conclude with recommendations for educators to improve students' affective states during and after programming.