Dynamics of programming anxiety and programming enjoyment in preservice teachers: The role of programming self-concept and gender

Anxiety and enjoyment are important influences of success. However, there are few studies investigating how anxiety and enjoyment change when university students first engage with an unfamiliar subject and how they affect each other. Computational thinking (CT) was chosen as the topic of interest, since preparing children for a life in today's digitised society is an educational goal. One part of CT is programming, which primary school teachers often dread and do not enjoy. One reason might be that female teachers in particular experience low domain-specific self-concepts which increase their anxiety and hamper their enjoyment. This study investigates to what extent preservice teachers experience programming anxiety and programming enjoyment, and whether domain-specific self-concept is related to changes in anxiety and enjoyment. 187 M.Ed. primary school preservice teachers (80 % women) participated. An experience-sampling method was used, and participants' programming anxiety and programming enjoyment were assessed at six measurement points. Programming self-concept was assessed at the first measurement point. A crossed-lagged panel mode showed reciprocal effects between programming enjoyment and programming anxiety. Additionally, a closer inspection of the slopes using multilevel regressions showed that programming anxiety followed a quadratic change ending at a lower level. Programming enjoyment followed a cubic change. Moreover, programming self-concept was negatively related to the change in programming anxiety but not programming enjoyment. Men had lower programming anxiety than women. Anxiety and enjoyment follow complex patterns of change that should be considered in research on dynamics over time. Domain-specific self-concept helps alleviate anxiety.