Motivation in Programming Education: A Comparative Analysis between Students from Portugal and Macao

This study focuses on students' motivational characteristics in introductory programming courses and their relationship with academic performance. It involved two samples of students, one taking the course in Portugal and the other in Macao. The study employed the motivation section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) to understand how students value the six motivational constructs it measures. The study aimed to identify the most influential factors in student motivation at the onset of the course and their correlation with the final grade. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted to validate the factor models identified in the initial Exploratory Factor Analysis. The key finding is that despite cultural and contextual differences, students in both groups share similar motivational patterns. They primarily value Learning Self-Efficacy and Control of Learning, followed by Test Anxiety, Value of Activity, and Intrinsic Motivation. In both groups, successful students demonstrated an initial positive perception of their self-regulation of learning capabilities. Although some had high expectations regarding the value of learning activities and their intrinsic motivation, there were also negative scores in these items, indicating that some successful students felt less intrinsically motivated at the beginning of the course or recognized less value in learning activities. On the other hand, students who failed revealed low self-efficacy values, perceived a lack of autonomy, and declared facing high levels of anxiety during tests. The study highlights the importance of using pedagogical strategies that address the need to promote students’ confidence, autonomy, and emotion management.