Transition in student motivation during a scratch and an app inventor course

Considering the declining enrolling in computing fields and the increasing demand in STEM disciplines, innovative methods should be employed to attract students in computing disciplines. MIT Scratch and App Inventor for Android visual programming environments are two such approaches. This is a comparative study to investigate any differences in the transition of students´ motivation to learn programming using Scratch and App Inventor for Android in K-12 educational settings. Intrinsic goal orientation, task value, control of learning beliefs and self efficacy were found to be increased using these two entry-level learning programming environments from the beginning to the middle of the course. No effect on extrinsic motivation was found. Evaluating the transition in motivation throughout the whole course period for both environments (work in progress) will have an impact on educators to retain students´ interest in programming and improve their attitudes towards computing.