Relationship of the creativity and metacognitive skills of computer students with their programming course's grades

Since computer programming is one of the most important courses in computer science, for selecting better teaching methods and performing better student guidance, professors must know that what mental abilities have higher effect on learning this course. This research was carried out with the aim of analyzing the relationship between the programming grades of computer students and their creativity and metacognitive skills. This multiple correlation study was performed in 2010. 200 computer students of Islamic Azad University of Mobarakeh were selected by stratified random sampling method. The CREE and O' Neil & Abedi metacognitive tests were used to measure students’ creativity and metacognitive skills. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods, multivariate regression, Pearson correlation, different T-tests and Chi-square test by SPSS 12 software. Students’ metacognitive skills had significant relationship with their academic level (p=0.01), but creativity didn’t have this significant relationship (p>0.05). Creativity (p<0.001) and metacognitive skills (p<0.05) had significant positive relationship with the students’ programming scores. Students’ programming grades had significant relationship with gender and academic level (p<0.05). Computer professors should take appropriate teaching methods in order to increase students’ creativity and metacognitive skills as a tool for better programming learning, instead of emphasizing more review and exercise, because the development of these mental factors has positive effect on independent and self-organized learning of the students.