Exploring the Antecedents and Moderators of Impacting Self-Efficacy in Students’ Learning Computer Programming

Contribution: Expand the scope of factors influencing self-efficacy and highlight the importance of teaching quality, peer support, perceived course value, the moderating effects of self-regulation, and adversity quotient (AQ). Background: Self-efficacy has been regarded as an important factor in students’ learning performance. However, little research has explored the antecedents of self-efficacy in the context of students’ learning computer programming. Research Question: What are the factors affecting students’ self-efficacy in the context of learning computer programming? And how do these factors influence students’ self-efficacy in learning computer programming?Methodology: Five hundred and twenty-three validated questionnaires were collected from four universities in Taiwan. Findings: Three antecedents (the quality of lectures, reciprocal peer tutoring, and perceived course value) positively affected self-efficacy. Two moderators (self-regulation and AQ) positively moderated the relationships between the quality of lectures, reciprocal peer tutoring, and self-efficacy but not the relationship between perceived course value and self-efficacy.