LEARNING DIFFICULTIES AND MOTIVATING FACTORS FOR STUDYING PROGRAMMING: WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE 2018 STUDIES IN THE IT COURSE AT UFERSA, PAU DOS FERROS CAMPUS?

Abstract

The teaching of programming logic in higher education presents a high failure rate, leading to delays, dropouts, and other problems, also impacting the formation of qualified professionals for the job market and academia. To identify the problems, Moreira et al. (2018) and Queiroz et al. (2018) conducted studies in 2018 at the Federal Rural University of Semi-Arid, Pau dos Ferros Campus - RN, seeking to understand the difficulties, motivations, and demotivations of the students. Since then, actions have been developed, such as the Pre-Algorithms course, to minimize the impact of deficiencies in the area. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted teaching and learning, demanding software resources due to the distancing restrictions imposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). This work is based on the studies of Moreira et al. (2018) and Queiroz et al. (2018) to verify if there have been changes regarding the studies conducted in 2018. For this, an online survey was conducted to obtain data and compare the results with previous works. As a result, it was identified that, unlike previous works, the main difficulty regarding content was the topic of Pointers. Developing programming logic remains a challenge among students, where teachers are demanding more practical activities to motivate them, as this approach proves positive, considering the motivation when students succeed and see the code being executed. Thus, the use of online learning objects emerges as the best strategy for study, from the perspective raised by the students.