A study on the significance of students' thinking level to students' performance

Students' level of thinking can be measured in terms of their problem-solving, logical thinking, and cognitive skills. The aim of this research is to test the hypothesis that the students' level of thinking is not a significant factor in achieving good results in a C programming course. This course is a core subject offered to engineering foundation students at the Centre of Foundation Studies (CFS), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). In the Malaysian education system, students are exposed to these three skills during secondary school Mathematics. Students are expected to possess problem-solving, logical thinking, and cognitive skills to acquire programming proficiency. In this research, students' thinking level was measured as the independent variable. This was achieved by distributing a questionnaire to 170 respondents out of a population of 700 students. The questionnaires were evaluated using a rubric, and scoring was based on a Likert Scale. Students' scores for the course, which included coursework and final examination marks, were designated as the dependent variable. SPSS was used to analyze the impact of students' thinking level on the C programming course. In this case study, it was found that the students' thinking level is not a significant factor influencing their scores in this course.