TY - THES A1 - Al-Saffar, Loay Talib Ahmed T1 - Analysing prerequisites, expectations, apprehensions, and attitudes of university students studying Computer science T1 - Analyse von Voraussetzungen, Erwartungen, Haltungen, Einstellungen und Befürchtungen von Bachelor-Studierenden der Informatik N2 - The main objective of this dissertation is to analyse prerequisites, expectations, apprehensions, and attitudes of students studying computer science, who are willing to gain a bachelor degree. The research will also investigate in the students’ learning style according to the Felder-Silverman model. These investigations fall in the attempt to make an impact on reducing the “dropout”/shrinkage rate among students, and to suggest a better learning environment. The first investigation starts with a survey that has been made at the computer science department at the University of Baghdad to investigate the attitudes of computer science students in an environment dominated by women, showing the differences in attitudes between male and female students in different study years. Students are accepted to university studies via a centrally controlled admission procedure depending mainly on their final score at school. This leads to a high percentage of students studying subjects they do not want. Our analysis shows that 75% of the female students do not regret studying computer science although it was not their first choice. And according to statistics over previous years, women manage to succeed in their study and often graduate on top of their class. We finish with a comparison of attitudes between the freshman students of two different cultures and two different university enrolment procedures (University of Baghdad, in Iraq, and the University of Potsdam, in Germany) both with opposite gender majority. The second step of investigation took place at the department of computer science at the University of Potsdam in Germany and analyzes the learning styles of students studying the three major fields of study offered by the department (computer science, business informatics, and computer science teaching). Investigating the differences in learning styles between the students of those study fields who usually take some joint courses is important to be aware of which changes are necessary to be adopted in the teaching methods to address those different students. It was a two stage study using two questionnaires; the main one is based on the Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire of B. A. Solomon and R. M. Felder, and the second questionnaire was an investigation on the students’ attitudes towards the findings of their personal first questionnaire. Our analysis shows differences in the preferences of learning style between male and female students of the different study fields, as well as differences between students with the different specialties (computer science, business informatics, and computer science teaching). The third investigation looks closely into the difficulties, issues, apprehensions and expectations of freshman students studying computer science. The study took place at the computer science department at the University of Potsdam with a volunteer sample of students. The goal is to determine and discuss the difficulties and issues that they are facing in their study that may lead them to think in dropping-out, changing the study field, or changing the university. The research continued with the same sample of students (with business informatics students being the majority) through more than three semesters. Difficulties and issues during the study were documented, as well as students’ attitudes, apprehensions, and expectations. Some of the professors and lecturers opinions and solutions to some students’ problems were also documented. Many participants had apprehensions and difficulties, especially towards informatics subjects. Some business informatics participants began to think of changing the university, in particular when they reached their third semester, others thought about changing their field of study. Till the end of this research, most of the participants continued in their studies (the study they have started with or the new study they have changed to) without leaving the higher education system. N2 - Thema der Dissertation ist die Untersuchung von Voraussetzungen, Erwartungen, Haltungen, Einstellungen und Befürchtungen von Bachelor Studierenden der Informatik. Darüber hinaus werden in der vorliegenden Analyse anhand des Solomon/Felder-Modells Lerntypen unter den Informatik-Studierenden untersucht mit dem Ziel, mittels einer vorteilhafter gestalteten Lernumgebung zur Lernwirksamkeit und zur Reduktion der Abbrecherquote beizutragen. Zunächst werden anhand einer Vergleichsstudie zwischen Informatik-Studierenden an der Universität Bagdad und an der Universität Potsdam sowie jeweils zwischen männlichen und weiblichen Studierenden Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung des Fachs herausgearbeitet. Hierzu trägt insbesondere das irakische Studienplatzvergabeverfahren bei, das den Studierenden nur wenig Freiheiten lässt, ein Studienfach zu wählen mit dem Ergebnis, dass viele Studierende, darunter überwiegend weibliche Studierende, gegen ihre Absicht Informatik studieren. Dennoch arrangieren sich auch die weiblichen Studierenden mit dem Fach und beenden das Studium oft mit Best-Noten. Der zweite Teil der Dissertation analysiert Lernstile von Studierenden des Instituts für Informatik der Universität Potsdam auf der Grundlage des Modells von Solomon/Felder mit dem Ziel, Hinweise für eine verbesserte Gestaltung der Lehrveranstaltungen zu gewinnen, die Lernende in der für sie geeigneten Form anspricht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen die Schwierigkeit, dieses Ziel zu erreichen, denn sowohl männliche und weibliche Studierende als auch Studierende von Informatik, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Lehramt Informatik weisen deutliche Unterschiede in den präferierten Lernstilen auf. In einer dritten qualitativen Studie wurden mit Studierenden von Informatik, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Lehramt Informatik Interviews über einen Zeitraum der ersten drei Studiensemester geführt, um einen detaillierten Einblick in Haltungen, Einstellungen und Erwartungen zum Studium zu gewinnen sowie Probleme zu ermitteln, die möglicherweise zum Abbruch des Studiums oder zum Wechsel des Fachs oder der Universität führen können. KW - computer science education KW - dropout KW - changing the university KW - changing the study field KW - Computer Science KW - business informatics KW - study problems KW - tutorial section KW - higher education KW - teachers KW - professors KW - Informatikvoraussetzungen KW - Studentenerwartungen KW - Studentenhaltungen KW - Universitätseinstellungen KW - Bachelorstudierende der Informatik KW - Abbrecherquote KW - Wirtschaftsinformatik KW - Informatik KW - Universität Potsdam KW - Universität Bagdad KW - Probleme in der Studie KW - Lehrer KW - Professoren KW - Theoretischen Vorlesungen KW - Programmierung KW - Anleitung KW - Hochschulsystem KW - Informatik-Studiengänge KW - Didaktik der Informatik Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-98437 ER -