Effects of Pascal and FORTRAN Programming on the Problem-Solving Abilities of College Students

The major purposes of this study were: (a) to determine if learning to program a computer in either Pascal or FORTRAN improves the problem-solving skills of students when compared to a control group and (b) to determine if learning to program a computer in Pascal is more effective than learning to program a computer in FORTRAN in the development of problem-solving abilities. Subjects were 58 college students enrolled in 15-week Pascal and FORTRAN computer programming classes. A 61-item problem-solving instrument was used as the pretest and posttest measure. Results indicated that learning to program in Pascal or FORTRAN does significantly improve problem-solving abilities of college level students, as measured by the instrument used, when compared to a group that receives no programming instruction. However, there was no significant difference in problem-solving ability between the Pascal group and the FORTRAN group.