@inproceedings{d6345baff6c449bb88c7e4e18e93a854,
title = "Deciding to major in computer science: A grounded theory of students' self-assessment of ability",
abstract = "There is great interest in understanding and influencing students' attraction to computing-related majors. This qualitative study is based on interviews with 31 students enrolled in introductory programming courses at two public universities in the United States. This paper presents a model of five factors that influence student decisions to major in CS and elaborates on our grounded theory analysis of one of these factors: how students assess their CS-related ability. We describe how students measure their ability in terms of speed, grades, and previous experience and how students make interpretations and decisions based upon these measurements. We found that students' interpretations were influenced by experiences in their environments and beliefs about ability as being fixed or malleable.",
keywords = "ability, grounded theory, major choice",
author = "Lewis, {Colleen M.} and Ken Yasuhara and Anderson, {Ruth E.}",
year = "2011",
doi = "10.1145/2016911.2016915",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "9781450308298",
series = "ICER'11 - Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE 2011 International Computing Education Research Workshop",
pages = "3--10",
booktitle = "ICER'11 - Proceedings of the ACM SIGCSE 2011 International Computing Education Research Workshop",
note = "7th International Computing Education Research Workshop, ICER 2011 ; Conference date: 08-08-2011 Through 09-08-2011",
}