Interactions of construal levels on programming ability and learning satisfaction: A case study of an Arduino course for junior high school students

Programming is one of the most crucial abilities for students in science and technology courses. Few studies on programming ability have considered the effect of students’ construal levels on their learning performance. Therefore, the effects of students‘ construal level were explored in this study to fill this research gap and open a new avenue for the improvements in programming ability. The research participants were 110 seventh- and eighth-grade students with basic programming abilities taking an Arduino course. Data were collected from online questionnaires and analyzed using two-way analysis of variance and structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships among construal levels, programming ability, and learning satisfaction. The results revealed that students’ construal levels affect their learning satisfaction and programming ability. These findings indicate that teaching strategies could effectively improve the learning satisfaction and programming ability of junior high school students.