A Flow Measurement Instrument to Test the Students' Motivation in a Computer Science Course

Motivate students is a top research aspect for many research communities, schools, universities, and institutions. In this context, motivation has an important role in the leaning process and particularly in the students’ success and the drop-out avoidance. This paper proposes a flow measurement instrument in order to test the students’ motivation in a Computer Science course. The experimental study involved 33 students that answer a same questionnaire twice in a period of one week. The temporal stability, internal consistency and convergent validity of the first English version of the Flow in education scale (EduFlow) were examined. The results show that autotelic experience (well-being provided by the activity itself) is significantly positively correlated with academic achievement. This research work is dedicated to Education and Computer Science active communities and more specifically to directors of learning centres / pedagogy departments, and the service of information technology and communication for education (pedagogical engineers) who meet difficulties in evaluate students’ motivation in a specific course.

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