Collaborative Learning in Programming Education: Effects on Self-Efficacy and Self-Regulation among 6th Grade Students

This study examines the impact of programming instruction using collaborative learning techniques on secondary school students’ programming self-efficacy and self-regulation skills. The participants were 43 sixth-grade students from a public school in Türkiye during the 2024-2025 academic year. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was used. For eight weeks, the experimental group received two hours per week of programming and problem-solving instruction through collaborative learning, while the control group followed standard curriculum methods. Data were collected using the Perceived Self-Regulation Scale and the Programming Self-Efficacy Scale, and analyzed with the Dependent Samples t-test, the Independent Samples t-test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test in SPSS. Results showed that the experimental group had significantly higher programming self-efficacy and self-regulation skills than the control group. These findings indicate that collaborative learning approaches can effectively improve both cognitive and metacognitive skills in secondary school programming education.