A strategy to improve student´s motivation levels in programming courses

In this paper we present and discuss a pedagogical strategy to promote programming learning. It was conceived to help students maximize their learning through the conscious assessment of their self-efficacy level, while they develop a suitable programming study behavior. We present and discuss the results of a two years experience conducted in the context of a Programming course at the University of Coimbra. In those experiences we used several instruments to assess different aspects, like motivation, self-efficacy and satisfaction with course activities and demonstrate an alternative model to make introductory programming courses more productive and attractive, increase motivation for learning and decrease dropout levels among students.