Outlet Title

Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2-18-2026

Abstract

Community college (CC) students make up a growing portion of introductory computing courses, yet little is known about their attitudes going into early programming experiences. This pilot study explored CC students’ initial perceptions of readiness for introductory computing. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two initial dimensions: a higher-perceived-ability factor based on positively framed items and a lower-perceived-ability factor based on negatively framed items. The higher perceived ability factor showed little difference between students with and without programming experience, indicating that early optimism may limit distinctions on positively worded items. In contrast, the factor of lower perceived ability indicated evident differences between groups, with students lacking prior experience indicating increased uncertainty. These findings offer preliminary evidence that negatively framed items may be more responsive to variation and consequently elicit more profound reflection, thereby revealing greater nuance in responses. Further investigation with larger and more diverse CC samples is necessary to comprehensively examine these differences.

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