International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

Gender Differences in Learning Programming: An

Analysis by Students‘ Perception
N.D. Gunasekara
Department of Information Technology ATI Gampaha, SLIATE, Sri Lanka

Abstract: In computer science, an expected outcome of a and do not have the courage to learn and just expect marks of
student’s education is programming skill. Although the teacher sympathy from lecturer (Derus & Ali, 2012) .The
expects the students to master the programming language, there programming skills of students may develop with previous
is a doubt whether the student had achieved the teachers’ exposure to programming environment, with the level of
expectation. So it is desirable to get the students’ view point on
analytical skills, with the attention during lectures, with the
what they had achieved and what are the obstacles they come
across. Thus, this study aims at investigating the students’ effort taken for practicing.
perception towards programming and also whether the In most educational institutes, the programming knowledge of
perception varies based on gender. 241 students who studied the the students is evaluated at the semester end examinations. Up
subject Structured Programming at Sri Lanka Institute of
Advanced Technological Education had attended the survey.
to some extent it is a measure of the students‘ knowledge, but
Results show that although both male and female students it may depend on students‘ mentality during the examination,
believe programming is important for future career there is a his writing ability and also the toughness of the question
strong gender affect in their perception on curricula and their paper. It will not give any indication of the reasons behind
ability of programming. The male students outperform female weakness of some students in programming. So, it is
students in understanding the concepts, working in the desirable to get the students‘ view point on what he has
programming development environment and fixing bugs. Male achieved and what are the obstacles he comes across in the
students find programming interesting and they tend to assist path of expertise in programming. By knowing that the
female students. Although programming is a practical based management of the institute and education experts can bring
subject, both male and female students feel participating in
lectures help them to learn programming better. For attitudinal
strategies to facilitate the learning process. Thus, this study
change of female students and to enhance the performance of all aims at investigating the students‘ perception towards
students, teachers can use tools like Alice, Scratch to better programming and also whether the perception varies based on
visualize programs or techniques like pair programming, peer gender.
instruction to enhance student collaboration. The results of this
study can be used as a base for future research on teaching
A. Background of the Study
methodology for programming subjects. Examining relationship Other than the state universities, as the only higher education
between perception and performance will extend and expand the institute under Ministry of Higher Education, SLIATE (Sri
findings.
Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education) has
Keywords: Programming, Perception, Factors, Learning taken the responsibility of creating excellent higher national
diplomates with modern technology for sustainable
I. INTRODUCTION development of the country. HNDIT (Higher National
n computer science, an expected outcome of a student‘s Diploma in Information Technology) programme of SLIATE
I education is programming skill. (Alexandra Funke, 2001).
In most computer science courses programming is taught from
had been established with the aim of providing information
technology personal to cater to the demands in the current
the beginning of the course and taught throughout many information technology field.
semesters advancing depth wise by digging into many theories Programming is considered as one of the essential technical
and expanding breadth wise by introducing many competency for a Sri Lankan software engineer (Manawadu,
programming languages. Although novice programmers lack Gapar, & Perera, 2015). So programming is considered as a
the knowledge of experts it is a skill they should master in major component in HNDIT programme and it is taught in
order to get a rewarding career. every semester during the two year academic period. In the
Although the teacher expects the students to master the first year main focus is teaching fundamental concepts of
programming language which is taught, there is a doubt programming through languages such as C++ and Java. Two
whether the student had achieved the teachers‘ expectation. programming subjects are offered as core modules in the first
Students especially novices, have problems in reading, year. In the second year students get the opportunity of
tracking, writing and designing a simple code fragment. This learning .NET for standalone application development, PHP
causes students to have the attitude of depending on others to for web based application development and Android for
complete the task given and consequently become indolent mobile application development. At the end of the diploma

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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

programme students have to submit a software system to Program development life cycle consist of many phases such
demonstrate their programming capabilities. Other than the as define the problem, design the solution, code the program
components in the curriculum the administration arrange and test the program. Students may perform different
software competitions and workshops to further enhance the activities in each phase and the difficulties they come across
programming skills of the students. Mastering a programming may differ according to the ability of designing, familiarity of
language leads to successful completion of diploma and also the development environment, ability of debugging, etc. Thus
lays a strong foundation for a successful career. So this study aims at identifying the nature of difficulties students
programming related subjects are critical for every student face while programming.
who is following HNDIT programme.
For students to perform better in programming it is a must to
B. Problem Statement identify factors which leads to poor performance in
programming and mitigate them. The factors may be
The performance of the students is considerably poor for the
individual such as lack of interest to learn, poor analytical
programming subjects which is clearly reflected in their end
skills, language barrier, etc or they may be environmental like
semester results and final year project. The students‘
lack of computers for practicing, syllabus focus too much on
programming knowledge were assessed by the end of
theory, learning environment is not conductive, etc.
semester examinations but there had been no effort to get the
students‘ opinion on the difficult areas in programming II. LITERATURE REVIEW
subjects or identifying the practical issues students face while
Programming is a major subject in any computer science
programming. This study focuses on getting students‘
course. So acquiring programming skills as well as obtaining
perception about programming.
good grades is very important for programming subjects. So,
In light of previously discussed findings, several factors the students‘ performance of the subject is measured in many
influence the poor performance in learning programming. For ways such as projects, continuous assessments and end
example computers that do not work, syllabus focuses too semester examinations. To expertise in the subject the student
much on theory (Noor Azizah Mat Isa, 2017), less effective in perception matters.
teaching methodology (Rajendran, 2011), lecturers not In the study done by Isa and Darus majority are students who
providing enough examples (Derus & Ali, 2012) are among do not have any experience in programming while 6% have
them. This study helps to verify whether the same reasons some experience in programming. It is same for the study
matter Sri Lankan students. done by Isa and Ali where 97% of students have no
Although computer science is stereotyped as male dominated. experience in programming. The population of Milne and
(as cited in (Alexandra Funke, 2001)) there is an increase of Rowe had previous experience in programming where 90% of
female students in the HNDIT programme. This study aims at them had used Java and 90% of them had used C++
identifying whether there is a gender difference in students‘ before(Milne & Rowe, 2002).
perception towards programming as programming is a core Several research have been done to identify the most difficult
subject that effects employability. The study is also concerned area in programming. According to Rajendran et al
in examining whether difficulties in programming are gender Concurrent programming, UI components with Swing and
specific. Generic programming of Java are most difficult areas for CSE
C. Objectives of the study and IT students of Anna University India. (Sivasakthi &
Rajendran, 2011) According to the research done by Isa and
The main aim of the study is to explore the views of male and Derus with the students in a Polytechnic at Malasia , Array
female students towards programming by referring to the Data Structure is the most difficult area of programming for
students registered for the HNDIT programme at SLIATE. In them. They have further analyzed this gender wise and
order to assist the aim, the study intends to achieve the realized that male students have less understanding in
following specific objectives: Functions and for female students Looping Statement and
Selection Statement are more difficult (Isa &Derus, 2017).
 Determine the gender differences in the level of
Based on the results of the study of Derus and Ali ,
understanding of different topics of the programming
Multidimensional Array, Looping Statements, Function and
subjects
Array Data Structure are the difficult topics for students
 Investigate gender wise, the nature of difficulties
(Derus & Ali, 2012) It is difficult to compare the results of all
while learning programming subjects
researches as the topics of programming they considered in
 Identify the factors that lead to perform poorly in their studies are different for each of them. It is noticeable that
programming subjects based on gender some researches have considered specific programming
Any programming subject covers topics such as variables, languages such as Java when preparing the questionnaire.
operators, control structures, arrays, methods and classes. This Rajendran et al identified designing a problem to solve a
study will help to observe topics which are difficult for certain task is the most difficult task for the students while it
students in general as well as gender wise. is second to understanding the basic concepts of programming

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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

structure in Derus and Ali‘s findings. (Sivasakthi & Personal Factors: The students‘ interest in joining the course,
Rajendran, 2011) (Derus & Ali, 2012)The study results of Isa their motivation of resolving programming issues and their
and Darus is same as of Derus and Ali where both genders previous experience in using a programming language is
faced the highest difficulty in understanding basic concepts of considered.
programming structure. (Isa & Derus, 2017)
Support: The teacher‘s support during lectures,
Identifying reasons for poor performance of programming demonstrators‘ attention during practical sessions and support
may help to mitigate them in future. Thus many researchers from peers in resolving programming errors is considered
have paid attention for that fact as well. Some students highly here.
stated that less effective in teaching methodology which led
them to perform poorly while learning Java programming. Environment: Considered the facilities provided by the
Less real world examples in class room teaching and less institute such as enough computers, the resources the students‘
examples in practical use were also the major factors for poor have such as internet facilities, laptops, etc and the conductive
performance. (Sivasakthi & Rajendran, 2011) According to environment
the study of Isa and Darus computers in the laboratory that are Curriculum: Here, how the curriculum is delivered i.e. the
out of order is a key factor for students to be week in teaching methodology, whether the curriculum is set up too
programming. As a result of non functional computers the theoretically or it is practical based and the complexity of the
students have to share the computers which leads to getting topics covered are the facts considered
less time to do practical (Isa & Derus, 2017). Derus and Ali
identified eight factors which leads to poor performance in III. METHOD
programming and lecturers not providing enough examples is A. Participants FIGURE :CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWO
the most effective factor. Computers that do not work and also
method of teaching by the lecturers is less effective had been The target population consist of first year students following
an issue for them. According to the above findings external HNDIT at SLIATE and by number there are 1735 individuals
factors lead to poor performance in programming rather than as at 2018 academic year. They are from all the 17 institutes
personal factors such as lack of interest or language barrier. spread island wide which are offering HNDIT . The minimum
education level of the individuals is G.C.E. (A/L) any stream
It is desirable to get the students‘ opinion towards the most
and their medium of study is English. The appropriate number
efficient way of learning programming. Some students state of participants for the study was determined using Krejcie and
that through practical and lab sessions they can learn a Morgan Table. The required sample size is 317 with 95%
programming language effectively. Further they state that
confidence and ±5% margin of error. All the participants are
discussion with others might be helpful compared to small
HNDIT 1st year students in year 2018. Female participants (n
group exercise sessions. (Sivasakthi & Rajendran, 2011)
= 169) outnumbered male participants (n = 94).
Derus and Ali got the same opinion from their study group
where majority of students agreed that the practical or B. Sampling Design
laboratory activities could help them to learn fundamental
Cluster sampling is used to select the sample units. Seven
programming effectively as well as to holding discussions
Advanced Technological Institutes had been selected
together with lecturers or friends. (Derus & Ali, 2012)
randomly through the lottery method. All the students of those
A. Conceptual framework of the study ATIs had been considered as sampling units.
personal factors C. Materials and Procedures
•motivation
Data was collected by means of self-administered
•interest
•experience
questionnaire. The rationale for choosing this method was
increasing the response rate from highly distributed group of
respondents and letting the respondents answer at their
convenience.
Curriculum Support
•Teaching methhodology •Teacher The survey instrument was divided into three sections. Section
•Wide curriculum •Demonstrator One: Programming Experience and Motivation, Section two:
•Theoritical curriculum •Peer Problems and problem solving approaches, Section three:
demographic information.
A pilot test had been carried out with five students in the
Environment researcher‘s institute. After a focus group discussion with
•Facilities them the questionnaire was modified and finalized. At the
•lack resourses end of the semester the researcher visited the selected
•inapprpriate environment institutes, explained the purpose of the study to the HNDIT
first year students. The student participation was volunteer
Fig 1: Conceptual Framework

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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

and verbal consent has been taken before distributing the Total 141 100.0% 151.6%
questionnaire. The printed questionnaire was distributed search internet 76 34.4% 45.5%
among the selected students and 10 minutes was given for
ask lecturer or
answering. Resolve_ 55 24.9% 32.9%
demo
Issuea
IV. RESULTS Female ask male friends 58 26.2% 34.7%
ask female friends 32 14.5% 19.2%
A. Motivation
22
Total 100.0% 132.3%
Majority who joined for HNDIT prefers HNDIT course over 1
other courses in the institute. Among them 83% male students a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1.
and 84.6% female students had chosen HNDIT as their 1st
choice. So there is an equally likely preference between
genders for HNDIT course. 1% a 81% , B. Perception

Figure 2 provides clear evidence that most of the students Overall, students feel programming is difficult and
have chosen HNDIT on their own wish. Most male students particularly the female portion expressing that claim is
have chosen HNDIT on their own interest while most female significant. More precisely stating, 62.1% female students
students have chosen HNDIT for parents‘ interest. believe programming is difficult while 36.2% male students
believe so. Only 40% students believe programming is
5% 1% interesting and the male proportion is as double as female
proportion stating that claim.
7% About 90% of the students believe that programming is
6% Own Interest important for future but more than half of the students are not
sure whether they can score a good grade for programming.
Parents' Interest
About 60% of the students think that programming is not easy
Friends Joined to understand yet they believe it is interesting.
81% No Other Choice
Mann-Whitney test indicated that
Other
 Both male students (N=94) and female students
(N=164) students equally likely believe that
programming course is important for future career.
Fig 2: Reasons for Choosing HNDIT
(U=7707, p=0.998)
More than half of the students are motivated towards  male students (N=94) believe more than female
programming to get a good career .Only 9% are interested in students (N=164)that programming is an interesting
getting a good grade. When compared gender wise female subject (U=6640, p=0.015)
students are more concerned about getting a good career when  male students (N=94) believe more than female
compared with male students. students (N=164) that they can score a good grade
for programming (U=6923.5, p=0.05)
Most tend to search internet when they get an issue in
programming practical sessions. So most are self motivated as
they are not using other options available such as ask from MALE
lecturer or demonstrators or else seek help from peers. Table 1
reveals that 46.8 % male students search internet to resolve pointers
programming issues opposed to 34.4% female students.
functions
Further, there is a significant observation that compared to
male students more female students tend to seek help from arrays
any external party such as lecturer, demonstrator, male looping statement
friends, female friends when they face an issue. selection statement
variables & data types
TABLE I :WAYS OF RESOLVING PROGRAMMING ISSUES GENDER WISE
input/output statements
Responses Percent
Gender of
N Percent Cases 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
search internet 66 46.8% 71.0%
ask lecturer or Not understand at all Not understand
Resolve_ 31 22.0% 33.3%
Male demo
Issuea sometimes understand Understand
ask male friends 31 22.0% 33.3%
Very well understand
ask female friends 13 9.2% 14.0%

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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

less. Majority has mentioned too much theory on the syllabus

FEMALE is the least relevant issue for them. Lack of interest to learn
programming is the most critical personal issue of the
pointers students. When analyzing gender wise for the females lack of
functions interest to learn programming is the most critical personal
arrays issue they had for poor performance in programming. Most
looping statement student opinion is learning environment that is not conductive
selection statement leads to poor performance in programming. When analyzing
variables & data types gender wise female students have stated the same reason
input/output statements
while male students say that computers provided in the lab are
not functioning well thus it has been a reason for their poor
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% performance in programming.
2) Problem solving approaches:
Not understand at all Not understand
According to the figures of table 2 mostly ―kuppi‖ classes are
sometimes understand Understand conducted by male seniors followed by male colleagues.
Very well understand
―Kuppi‖ are informal teaching sessions conducted by students
for their fellow students to help in academic work.
Fig 2: Levels of Understanding on Different Topics by Gender TABLE2: THE GROUPS WHO CONDUCTED KUPPI CLASSES
C. Problems &Problem Solving Approaches Responses
Percen
Percen t of Cases
1) Problems : N
t
male
For both genders the basic concepts of programming ie. seniors
193 47.2% 77.5%
input/output statements, variables and data types are the topics female
which can easily be understood. Pointers seems to be the most 69 16.9% 27.7%
seniors
support froma
difficult topic for both genders and for females it is much male
109 26.7% 43.8%
more difficult than males. friends
female
38 9.3% 15.3%
Mann-Whitney test indicated that friends
100.0 164.3
Total 409
 Female students (N=164) find it more difficult than % %
male students (N=94) in designing a program using a a. Dichotomy group tabulated at value 1.
flow chart (U=6141,p<0.001)
 Female students (N=164) find it more difficult than Gender wise analysis reveals that the opinion of both male
male students (N=94) to find bugs in the program and female students on the factor which help them to learn
(U=5959.500,p<0.001) programming better is participating in lectures. While male
students believe that following LMS course is least helpful for
 Female students (N=164)find it more difficult than
them to learn programming, female students believe working
male students (N=94) to understand program
alone on programming is least helpful.
language syntax (U=6.312E3,p=0.002)
 Female students (N=164) find it more difficult to There is no difference between the preference of male and
work with program development environment than female students regarding the teaching method and both
male students (N=94). (U=6061.500,p=0.01) groups prefer lecturing method. For both genders project
approach is the least preferred method.
Reasons for poor performance in programming was analyzed
under the categories teaching issues, personal issues and V. DISCUSSION
environmental issues. Students were asked to rank each issue
Gender differences in factors associate with perception
and the average rank was calculated as follows.
towards programming was identified in the conceptual
𝑛
𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖
𝑤𝑖 framework.
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘 =
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡  Personal
Where  Support
 Environment
w = weight of ranked position
 Curriculum
x = response count for answer choice
Gender wise analysis of the above factors is given below
As per the results, irrespective of the gender most students
feel helpfulness of instructors and their attention on students is

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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) |Volume V, Issue IV, April 2021|ISSN 2454-6186

Personal theoretically or it is practical based and the complexity of the

topics covered are the facts considered.
Personal factor was measured by the parameters; students‘
interest in joining the course, their motivation of resolving Majority of the students understand the basic concepts of
programming issues and their previous experience in using a programming such as input/output statements, variables , data
programming language. types and control structures. Pointers seem to be the most
difficult topic for both genders and for females it is much
The percent of male students having previous experience in
more difficult than males. According to hypothesis testing
programming is nearly the same as of female students but
results, female students find it more difficult than male
male students have chosen the course on their own interest
students to understand program language syntax, find bugs in
while female students have chosen it because of the influence
the program and also to work in the programming
of their parents. The male proportion stating that
development environment .Although programming is a
programming is interesting is as double as female proportion
practical based subject, both male and female students feel
and as male students feel it is interesting they tend to resolve
participating in lectures help them to learn programming
programming related issues on their own, for example by
better. So among various teaching methods such as lecturing,
searching internet. By the results it is clear that males
lab sessions, continuous assessments, e – learning approach
outsmart female in sharing the knowledge and providing
they prefer lecturing method most.
support for academic work. For female students lack of
interest in learning programming is the most critical issue they VI. CONCLUSION
face.
This study tried to investigate the effect of gender on the
The results of hypothesis testing indicate that that both male perception towards programming. The male students have a
and female students equally likely believe that programming more favorable attitude towards programming compared to
course is important for future career but male students believe girls. They face less issues when writing programs and they
more than female students that they can score a good grade for tend to resolve them on their own. The male students tend to
programming provide support for peers and juniors. Both genders believe
programming is important for them to get a good career yet
Support
female students feel lack of interest in learning programming
The teacher‘s support during lectures, demonstrators‘ is an issue for them. For most of the students, preferred
attention during practical sessions and support from peers in teaching method is lecturing method which contrast with
resolving programming errors is considered here. previous research findings. (Derus & Ali, 2012)As
programming is a practical based subject, effectiveness of
Female students feel programming is difficult. As a
learning can be increased by practicing.
percentage it is 62.1% of all students. Thus when they face
programming related problems they tend to seek help from This study‘s findings offer a variety of further research ideas.
lecturers, demonstrators or from peers. When the students For example future research may incorporate both teacher and
were asked to rank factors that help them to learn learner perspective. The results of this study can be used as a
programming, least rank was given to ‗working alone on base for future research on teaching methodology for
programming‘. That opinion is going along with how they programming subjects. Examining relationship between
resolve programming related issue; i.e seeking help from an perception and performance will extend and expand the
external party. findings.
Environment A. Recommendations
Here considered the facilities provided by the institute such as The female proportion of students in the population is higher
enough computers, the resources the students‘ have such as than males. Females students‘ interest is less in programming
internet facilities, laptops, etc and the conductive and they tend to seek help more. So to increase the interest,
environment. the teachers can use tools such as Alice, Scratch to better
visualize the programs or techniques like pair programming,
Most students‘ opinion is learning environment that is not
peer instruction to enhance student collaboration.
conductive leads to poor performance in programming. When
analyzing gender wise female students have stated the same Although programming is a practical based subject, both male
reason while male students say that computers provided in the and female students feel participating in lectures help them to
lab are not functioning well thus it has been a reason for their learn programming better. Attitudinal change of students can
poor performance in programming. be done by introducing more student centric activities such as
lab sessions, small group exercises.
Curriculum
Both genders feel helpfulness of instructors and their attention
Here, how the curriculum is delivered i.e. the teaching
on students is less. Thus, the administration can arrange
methodology, whether the curriculum is set up too
workshops to change attitudes of the instructors.

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B. Limitations Conference On Computing Education Research (Pp. 161-162).

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