Effect of Social Media Learning Environments (SMLE) on Learners’ Expertise Mental Model in Computer Programming Subject for High School Students

Abstract

With the ease of use and linking various knowledge resources, social media technologies have been widely used for educational area and societies to promote lifelong learning. Consequently, this paper presents the design social media learning environments for enhancing mental model in computer programming course. The target group consisted of 40 high school students. The research design was Pre-experimental with One Shot Case Study. For qualitative data, they were analyzed by using an in-depth interview and students’ answering responsibility while they were studying by protocol analysis. The research findings showed that the students were able to construct expert mental model representing understanding as: (1) ability to explain various stories or incidents, (2) ability to change the rules and processes into problem solving, and (3) ability to express the association of fact and studied rules with different situations. Besides, it was found that the students could be able to organize the categories of constructed mental model as well.