Abstract:

Computer science is becoming an important subject in schools. The paradigm of learning and teaching is changing, and now the student becomes the centre of the teaching process. For teaching to be as successful as possible, it is important that students are motivated. Therefore, this paper shows the importance of motivation in teaching with a focus on computer science teaching.

The goal of this research was to establish which factors are important for a student who considers himself a motivated student, but also which factors affect a student who is not considered motivated for computer science classes, and what are their views on the same issues. The research examines whether motivated students expect higher grades than unmotivated ones, as well as how much students independently research material from computer science and whether they want to deal with the learned content in their professional life. It is also investigated which motivational activities and techniques teachers most often use in computer science classes. Also, the goal of the research was to find out what are students' motivations for working hard in computer science classes and how often they participate in the same classes, as well as how they feel when they get high grades, how they feel when they get low grades, and how they feel when a competitive atmosphere reigns in the class.

The research was conducted by a survey created as a Google form. Students from three high schools participated in the research. All secondary schools are from Šibenik, namely the Medical School, the Šibenik School of Economics and the Antun Vrančić Gymnasium.

Main goal of this research was to explore what students think has the most influence on their motivation for computer science classes. Results were interpreted by comparative analysis of the answers of students who think they are motivated for computer science classes and those who think they are not motivated. Before starting the research, four hypotheses were set:
1. students motivated for the computer science feel positive emotions during computer science classes;
2. unmotivated students are less clear about the concrete application of the content of the computer science course than motivated students;
3. students like using different teaching strategies in computer science classes, such as solving more difficult tasks, receiving appropriate feedback and collaborative learning, and
4. extrinsic reward is the greatest motivation for students in computer science classes.

A detailed interpretation of the results confirmed all the hypotheses, and based on the entire research, it can be concluded that teachers use numerous ways to motivate students in the class, thereby encouraging their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Nevertheless, for students, the grade as a reward is still the biggest motivation for learning computer science at school. It has been proven that for the majority of students, the teacher's effort pays off, and accordingly, the students believe that the teacher's teaching style is the most important factor in their efforts in class. All this results in the fact that the vast majority of the examined students are motivated to learn computer science, and this is precisely the most important prerequisite for successful transfer of knowledge from the subject of computer science to the new generations on whom the world rests.

Keywords:

Motivation, computer science, secondary school.