Share Paper: A Strategy to Increase Students’ Motivation and Decrease Dropout Rates on Computer Programming Courses in a Public Institute of Education and Technology

  1. Alexandre Correia, The Federal Institute of Education and Technology at at Sertao Pernambucano - IF Sertao-PE, Brazil
  2. Essi Ryymin, Hameen University of Applied Sciences - HAMK, Finland
  3. Fernando Pacheco, The Federal Institute of Education and Technology at Santa Catarina - IFSC, United States
  4. Paivi Aarreniemi-Jokipelto, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, School of Vocational Teacher Education, Finland
  5. Brian Joyce, Hameen University of Applied Sciences - HAMK, Hameenlinna, Finland
Monday, June 22 11:55 AM-12:15 PM Salon Kafka

Abstract: This paper is a report on a exploratory design research of educational intervention conducted on a public institute of education and technology. The institution of 3,000 students is an important regional educator in Sao Francisco Valley, which is known as one of the poorest areas in Brazil. There are remarkable problems of dropout rates in the school. The educational intervention presented here offers a new strategy to mitigate dropout rates by re-designing teaching of computer programming courses on the basis of a student-centered approach with emphasis on guided participation and project-based learning. The hypothesis is that these methods engage and ...