The Comparison of Students’ Self-Assessment, Gender, and Programming-Oriented Spreadsheet Skills (original) (raw)

TEACHERS' ASSESSMENT AND STUDENTS' SELF-ASSESSMENT ON THE STUDENTS' SPREADSHEET KNOWLEDGE

In the academic year of 2011/2012 a program was launched at the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen, Hungary to test the spreadsheet knowledge of the freshmen. This year and in the following 695 students were tested, altogether. In advance to the academic test a self-assessment test was completed by the students, where on a 0-5 Likert scale the students were asked to evaluate their spreadsheet. In the follow-up section of the program elementary and secondary school teachers of Informatics and Computer Sciences were given a similar questioner. The questioner contained the students' test and additional questions in connection with the students' performance and the importance of the task. The students' results in the spreadsheet tasks reached 20% neither of the two years. The results of our research, however, clearly indicate that both the self-assessment values and the teachers' evaluation values significantly overestimate the students' performance. Comparing our results to previously tested self-assessment evaluations the students' overestimation on selfassessment is not surprising, it is a well-established phenomenon. However, the overestimation of the students' results by the teachers is rather alarming, since it means that the teachers of Informatics are not aware of their students' knowledge.

Spreadsheet Knowledge and Skills of French Secondary School Students

2008

The aim of our research project called DidaTab -Didactics of Spreadsheets -is to get a more comprehensive picture of ICT uses in French schools and to obtain a better knowledge of students' spreadsheet competencies. The exploratory study of curricula and practices shows very sparse use during secondary education. To achieve a more precise estimation of what students can do with spreadsheets, we identified detailed competencies and designed computer performance tasks to serve as a basis for tests. The analysis of the results of a few groups indicates that in most cases students' knowledge and skills are rather low. A deeper investigation of students' work shows close links between lack of confidence with spreadsheets and lack of knowledge in mathematics and informatics.

A study of the gender differences on spreadsheet grades for undergraduate students

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences between genders on the scores of a series of spreadsheet projects in a survey computer information systems course. This study hypothesizes that there will be significance in scores in the ten assigned projects between female students and males students; with the female students scoring higher than male students in a majority of the projects. Additionally, this study hypothesizes that there will be a significant difference in the mean project score for all ten projects with the female students scoring higher than the male students. Group statistics and t-tests were used to determine significance between females and males. Among the discoveries, except for a slight difference in two of the projects, there was no significance between female and male students' project scores. An interesting downward trend in mean scores emerged as the projects progressed.

A survey of 1st-year university students’ ability to use spreadsheets at the start of 2003

2004

Universities are using more information and communication technologies (ICT) in their teaching and learning environments. An anonymous multiple-choice survey self-assessed the spreadsheet skills of students enrolled in …rst-year units at the beginning of 2003. The results of the survey indicate signi…cant de…ciencies in the use of spreadsheets. There is a signi…cant proportion of students who are unable to use spreadsheets as part of their education at the start of their university studies. The implications for tertiary education are discussed.

Didactic Connection between Spreadsheet and Teaching Programming

Didactic Connection between Spreadsheet and Teaching Programming, 2022

When we talk about problem-solving skills, then, generally, programming comes to our minds as an activity that can develop algorithmic thinking and abstraction. Regarding the spreadsheet, the software application area could be our first, and mathematics could be our second thought. When spreadsheets and programming are mentioned together, programming of macros is in focus, which is in fact programming. In this paper, we want to focus on how these two areas impact each other, and we want to emphasize that the spreadsheet is an efficient tool to develop algorithmic thinking. Moreover, there is more "crosstalk" between these two tools. This paper will show through examples that there is a two-way connection between spreadsheet and programming; that is why it can be useful to build the concepts of these two topics mutually on each other.

Automated assessment and marking of spreadsheet concepts

Proceedings of the second Australasian conference on Computer science education - ACSE '97, 1996

This paper discusses the use of methods for automating the testing and marking of spreadsheet concepts within an introductory service subject offered at the University of Newcastle. The methods reduce logistic and management problems encountered with large classes and enhance individual student learning outcomes. Future extensions to the present work are also described.

What is the Success of High School it Education? An Investigation into Higher Education Students’ Knowledge of Spreadsheet Applications

Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce

Teaching Computer Science in higher education is imperative, even though today’s students have been born into a world where technology is an essential part of everyday life. To efficiently master modern, business, technical and scientific knowledge and to proficiently produce quality results in a work environment it is crucial to have high level IT knowledge. In business, Excel is the lingua franca and so knowing how to aptly use spreadsheets is a must for our students. The primary objective of the authors was to examine the perceived and actual knowledge of spreadsheet applications of students entering higher education. Accordingly, a questionnaire and a practical assignment have been developed. In the questionnaire, students were asked to provide information concerning their previous IT studies and rate their knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets and database management. During the practical, students were asked to solve an Excel exercise taken from a high school Computer Sci...

Improvement of Spreadsheet Skills in Business-Oriented University Courses

Proceedings of the 9th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED) , 2015

Most recent studies suggest that approximately one third of business data in modern organizations is generated using EUD applications developed by non-IT-specialist end-users, most frequently by use of spreadsheet applications. One of the causes of the pandemic of spreadsheet errors, which has been referred to in numerous articles, are inadequately developed end-user spreadsheet applications. Contents pertaining to spreadsheet development offered in Serbian university and LLL courses are primarily based on spreadsheet techniques and capabilities, with complete disregard or marginal recognition of the need to raise awareness of risks and devastating consequences associated with spreadsheet errors. Results of a research on the use of spreadsheets in Serbian SMEs suggest that spreadsheet error prevention and reduction techniques are used rarely. Based on a selection of current best practices, this paper presents several proposals for updating/innovating courses related to spreadsheet d...

Using the Spreadsheet Paradigm to Introduce Fundamental Concepts of Programming to Novices

In this paper, we explore the potential of introducing fundamental concepts of programming to first year students using spreadsheets. Many students find programming to be difficult to learn as the concepts are new and unfamiliar. On the other hand, spreadsheets have a relatively easy to use interface that provides instant viewing of results of data manipulation. Fundamental concepts of programming can then be indirectly introduced using their spreadsheet equivalents before the students start their formal introductory programming class. This paper specifically focusses on how fundamental programming concepts can be mapped to their spreadsheet equivalents.

Sprego: case study on the effectiveness of teaching spreadsheet management with schema construction

Education and Information Technologies, 2019

In the modern, information driven society managing and handling data is unavoidable. The most common form of data handling is to organize data into tables and complete operations on them in spreadsheets. Sprego (Spreadsheet Lego) is a programming-oriented methodology focusing on schemata construction and authentic problem-solving working with only a limited number of general-purpose functions. In our current study the goal is to present Sprego as an alternative method for spreadsheeting, and to measure its effectiveness in education compared to the traditional surface approach methods. We also aim to highlight the advantages of teaching datamanagement, spreadsheeting, and introduction to programming by applying an algorithmic and schemata centric method in a user-friendly interface. The teaching and testing were carried out in three classes of a local middle and high school with two experimental and one control groups. Based on our results, it is found that the Sprego methodology is...