Person-Thing-Orientation and the Choice of Computer Science Courses in High School

Abstract

Person-Thing-Orientation is a psychological trait that represents a persons interests in its social and physical environment. It often is measured by a standardised questionnaire, providing two scores for an individual, the Person- and the Thing-Score. In several studies they were shown to correlate to a persons tendency to select STEM-subjects at university and their persistence and success. In this paper the Person-Thing-Orientation of German high school students and its correlation to the choice of CS courses in the last two terms are examined. In addition to the standardised self-test the same questionnaire is used to obtain the Person- and Thing-Scores that the students ascribe to a typical computer scientist. Based on the collected data the correlations between gender, the choice of computer science courses and the self and foreign scores, as well as their distance, is analysed. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.