STUDENTŲ PASIRENGIMO IR MOTYVACIJOS INFORMATIKOS INŽINERIJOS KRYPTIES STUDIJOMS TYRIMAS

The Research of Students’ Motivation and Preparedness for Informatics Engineering Studies

Abstract

Information technology is developing at a very quick rate, so it is very important that informatics engineering specialists trained in high schools should be receptive to innovations, understand the importance of studying throughout life, be able adapt to ever-changing labour market environments. The training of highly qualified and ever-improving informatics engineering specialists is intimately connected with the quality of studies which is influenced by pre-studying parameters such as the preparedness of students to study and study program selection motivation.

Research objective – to assess the motivation and preparedness of Panevezys College informatics engineering students to study informatics engineering study programs.

Research tasks: 1. To assess the motivation of informatics engineering students to study chosen study programs according to study program selection priorities. 2. To analyse the grounds of students’ choice to study informatics engineering study programs at Panevezys College. 3. To assess how a study program selected by students corresponds to learning trends chosen by them at school. 4. To assess students’ preparedness for informatics engineering studies according to the results of passed State Information Technologies Exam and testing results. 5. To ascertain how students themselves evaluate their preparedness for informatics engineering studies.

Research methods: the assessment of students’ motivation and preparedness to study informatics engineering study programs included the analysis of the admission data of the students who chose informatics engineering studies, the appraisal of questionnaire survey results, and the analysis of the results of programming and working with application programs tests passed by the first year informatics engineering students.

Research results can be summarized with a help of the below mentioned conclusions:

1. The majority of students chose study programs reasonably and were enrolled in the speciality by the first priority.
2. The students chose studies at Panevezys College basing on place of residence, while the choice of study program was determined by personal interests and abilities.
3. Less than half of the students of informatics engineering chose the right direction of learning at school. Improperly chosen learning trend at school influences incomplete preparedness for informatics engineering studies.
4. The assessment of Panevezys College students preparedness for informatics engineering studies according to State Information Technology Exam helped to establish that the majority of students reached only satisfactory level, that shows that the preparedness of these students for informatics engineering studies is not very high. The conducted testing of knowledge of the first year students showed that students who did not choose programming module at school lack programming basics.
5. The conducted research showed that students of informatics engineering assess working with application programs knowledge and skills gained at school better than programming knowledge and skills.
6. For the purposes of qualitative informatics engineering studies additional programming consultations are necessary for the first year students, while bigger groups should be divided into subgroups according to basic students’ preparedness. In such a manner it would be possible to ensure proper training level of more talented and motivated students.