“I’m not a computer”: How identity informs value and expectancy during a programming activity

Code tracing—simulating the way the computer executes a program—is a common teaching and assessment practice in introductory programming courses. In a laboratory experiment where code tracing was encouraged, we found that some struggling novice programmers described code tracing as not only cognitively complex, but also in opposition to their self-beliefs. One participant described himself as not a computer, and therefore unfit to execute code like the computer does. Another described himself as not a programmer, and did not value an activity that was only for learning about how code works. We mapped these learners’ self-narratives onto the Eccles Expectancy-Value Model of Achievement Choice to understand how identity relates to the choice to not trace code. While both participants valued what they could create with code, neither valued code tracing. Alternative activities might allow students with these identities to build skills in a way that aligns with their self-beliefs.