MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 1

Difficulties experienced by ICT Students in Learning Java Programming

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in Practical Research

Senior High School Department

Montessori Professional Colleges of Asia
Legarda, Manila

Submitted to:
MR. STEPHEN A. GAYTANO

By:
Group 1
CHIEZEL FLORES
EULA CABRIA
SHEILA MAE BANTULA
CESAR FRANCISCO MAGAAN
HILARIO TECSON JR.

S.Y. 2018 – 2019

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE BOOK AND ITS BACKGROUND

Page No.

A. Introduction…………………………………………………………… p. #1

B. Background of the study……………………………………………. p. #5

C. Theoretical Framework………………………………………………. p. #6

D. Conceptual Framework……..………………………………………. p. #7

E. Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….p. #8

F. Hypothesis…………………………………………………………….p. #9

G. Scope and Delimitations of the Study……………………………….p. #10

H. Significance of the Study………………………………………………p. #11

I. Definition of terms……………………………………………………….p. #12

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 3

CHAPTER l

INTRODUCTION

Introduction TOPIC Java is an object-oriented, concurrent, distributed,

platform-independent- programming language and the object-orientated approach

facilitates structuring programs through composition and inheritance.There are two

types of programs in Java ,The Applets that run from browsers and Command Line

programs.The primary focus of this lab is the Event Handling mechanisms of Java

and Developing GUI prototypes in Java. Programming using the Java language is

a combination of knowledge of the programming tools and language, problem

solving skills, and effective strategies for program design and implementation.

Students however, find the skill of programming difficult to acquire in general

Teaching to program using the Java programming language has also proved to be

problematic. This may be due to many factors ranging from difficulties within the

subject and methods used to teach it through to expectations and attitudes of the

teaching staff and their students. Problems within the subject could be lack of

aptitude, cognitive factors such as learning styles and motivation, the difficulty of

programming using multiple skills and processes, and the choice of the initial

programming language. Java is an open source programming language. How can

learning the Java Programming by nonprogrammable students or person.

The importance of our topic is we are going to spread some knowledge

about the difficulties of students in learning Java Programming. As we can see

Java Programming is not easy it used to be problematic and hard to study. And of
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 4

course one of the most importance of our topic is to clear the minds and

expectations of our teachers that learning java is one of the most difficult topics

faced by students where memory related concepts which students were not

capable in creating a clear mental model of memory movement during program

execution.Also,we want to share a knowledge on why is java programming is

important to be learned.

We chose this topic not because we want to spread our rants but because

we want to say that Learning Java Programming is not that easy especially with a

students like us.While we are searching we realized that learning java is really

hard,a survey has been conducted by and to identify the factors that lead to

students learning difficulty in programming with a various dimensions such as

computing background,computing experience,difficulties while learning

programming and factors that lead to poor performance in programming course.

One of the main objective why we chose this topic is because we want to

acquire some knowledge in our fellow students and also we want to share some

ideas or techniques to decrease the problems faced by the students in learning

programming. Also, students like us wants to learn and have an ideas on the two

reasons why Java Programming is important, we want to know why Portability and

security necessitated the intention of java,We also want to know the Emergence of
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 5

world wide web which demanded portables games and of course we want to know

why there is having a trouble in C/C++

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

This thesis builds on previous work, trying to understand what difficulties

students have when learning to program. The included papers cover several

areas encountered when trying to learn programming.

The results show that students who annotate more also tend to be more

successful. However, the results also indicate that there might be a cultural bias

towards the use of annotations. Not only do students have problems with

programming, they also have problems with designing software.

Even graduating students fail to a large extent on simple design tasks. Our

results in Paper II show that the majority of the students do not go beyond

restating the problem when asked to design a system.

Many studies have been reported regarding the phenomenon of student's

struggling with the first steps of learning to program. A multinational, multi-

institutional study was conducted to explore and investigate student's

programming performance and skill. The study revealed that students have

problems in writing, reading we well as designing a simple programming code.

Therefore, it is important to investigate the factors that lead to student's learning

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 6

difficulty in programming. The difficulties need to be identified in order to be able

to aid them learning in an effective manner.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Abdellah defined theory as "an explanation of a phenomenon or an abstract

generalization that systematically explains the relationship among given

phenomena, for purposes of explaining,predicting and controlling such

phenomena"
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 7

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INPUT PROCESS OUPUT

1. Profile of the 1. Distribution of
respondents. survey.
 Age
 Gender 2. Collection of
 Course/ data.
Strand
2. Common reasons 3. Gathering of
of student that data.
Difficulties
experienced
experienced by ICT
difficulties in Java
4. Tallying of data. Students in Learning
Programming.
Java Programming
3. Extent that
students find Java
Programming 5. Analysis.
difficult.
4. Effective 6. Summarizing.
techniques to
avoid common
mistakes in Java
Programming like:
 Memory Leaks
 Ignoring
Exceptions

FEEDBACK
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 8

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study was undertaken to find out why students of Montessori

Professional College of Asia – Legarda S.Y. 2018-2019 Branch experience the

difficulties of learning in Java Programming.

Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following easearch questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age

1.2 Gender

1.3 Course/Strand

2. What are the common reasons why students experience difficulties lin Java

Programming?

3. To what extent do they find these difficulties difficult?

4. What are the effective techniques to avoid common mistakes in Java

Programming like:

4.1 Memory Leaks

4.2 Ignoring Exceptions

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 9

HYPOTHESIS

The researchers use Research Hypothesis which stated that there is

difficulties in learning java program experienced by the students of Montessori

Professional College of Asia-Legarda. The results show that the students use a

large number of different strategies to get unstuck and continue their learning.

Many of the strategies involve social interaction with peers and others.

REF. http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:447104/FULLTEXT02
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 10

SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Scope:

The scope of the study refers to the student programmers under which the

study will be operating. The problem you seek to resolve will be your supporting

objective and the difficulties of the students in learning Java programming will be

the main objective.

Delimitations

This study involves the students of Montessori Professional College of

Asia-Legarda S.Y 2018-2019 as respondents. Mainly this study will focus on

looking for students whose experiencing difficulties in learning Java programming.

The researchers will going to look for students who are problematic and having

struggles in learning java programming. Also this research will share knowledge on

how students of MPCA-Legarda surpass the difficulties in Java Programming. This

study involves for those students that are problematic in learning Java

Programming
 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 11

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is hoped to be beneficial on the following groups and institutions:

Fellow Students

The students of Montessori Professional College of Asia-Legarda will be

the beneficiary of this research, through this paper some students whose learning

Java Programming that experiencing Difficulties will going to have some

knowledge on how to surpass the struggles in coding. Also they’re going to learn

simple techniques in Java Programming

Teachers/Professor

Through this paper teachers or professor/s of Java Programming will

going to know the struggles experienced by the students. They’re going to clear

their minds that learning Java Programming is not that easy and learning java

Programming is problematic for students.

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 12

DEFINITION OF TERMS

 Abstract

 Acquire

 Aptitude

 Cognitive Factors

 Computer Code

 Concepts

 Conducted

 Explore

 Hypothesis

 Investigates

 Java

 Learning Styles

 Motivations

 Phenomenon

 Predicting

 Purpose

 Rants

 Theory

REFERENCES: Merriam Webster Dictionary

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 13

Abstract

The overall purpose of the study and the research problem you investigated

Acquire

If you acquire something, you buy or obtain it for yourself, or someone

gives it to you.

Aptitude

1.a: INCLINATION, TENDENCY an aptitude for hard work

b: a natural ability : TALENT an aptitude for gymnastics

2. capacity for learning an aptitude for languages

3. general suitability : APTNESS

Cognitive factors

Refer to characteristics of the person that affect performance and learning.

Computer code

Also known as program code is the set of instructions forming a computer

program which is executed by a computer.

Concepts

1. something conceived in the mind: THOUGHT, NOTION

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 14

2. an abstract or generic idea generalized from particular instances the

basic concepts of psychology the concept of gravity

Conducted

When you conduct an activity or task, you organize it and carry it out.

Explore

If you explore a place or something, you travel around it to find out what it is

like.

Hypothesis

is a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more

variables.

Investigates

Investigates: try to find out what happened or what is truth

Java

Java is defined as an object-oriented language similar to C++, but simplified

to eliminate language features that cause common programming errors.

Learning Styles

A learning style is a student's consistent way of responding to and using

stimuli in the context of learning.

 MONTESSORI PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES OF ASIA 15

Motivation

mo·ti·va·tion /ˌmōdəˈvāSH(ə)n/ noun

the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.

Phenomenon

A phenomenon is something that is observed to happen or exist

Predicting

Use on research as a fundamental of the scientific method, when they

generate a hypothesis

Purpose

The purpose of something is the reason for which it is made or done.

Rants .

If you say that someone rants, you mean that they talk loudly or angrily,

and exaggerate or say foolish things.

Theories

Are formulated to explain, predict and understand phenomena and, in many

cases to challenge.