Towards a model of student success in programming courses

Since the birth of computer science some 40 years ago, educators and researchers alike have struggled with improving student success, particularly in the introductory programming courses, which often have a very high failure rate. Although many researchers have studied how and why students succeed in programming courses, no research to date has analyzed multiple variables simultaneously to develop an integrated model of student success. Rather, the research has been fragmented and non-cumulative, with researchers studying hundreds of different variables, under different conditions, and reaching different conclusions. Educators are faced with the arduous task of developing interventions and pedagogical techniques based on a plethora of seemingly important variables. In this work, we begin to bring together previous research to develop a model of student success based on theoretical reasoning. The proposed model identifies variables in three categories: individual, organizational, and demographic.