ITiCSE 2010 working group report motivating our top students

It would be unlikely for any first year programming class to be solely composed of novices with the same aptitude for learning. We all have students who arrive with a range of abilities and backgrounds. We have students who barely know their way around a keyboard and those who have programmed professionally; this starting knowledge is also no indicator of learning ability. We need to support struggling students with little knowledge whilst maintaining the enthusiasm of those who are quick to learn, and trying not to de-motivate the ones in the middle The aim of this working group was to explore the ways in which academics around the world enthuse their high achieving students; seeking things that work and things that don't. This has been achieved by a mixture of literature review and survey of current practice. The synthesis of these forms the basis for the recommendations we make.

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