Abstract
The aim of this study is to establish what correlational relationship exists between a student’s educational background as determined by his or her critical thinking and self-regulation skills and academic performance in firstyear level programming courses. The student’s achievement in the programming courses is specified as the dependent variable. A student’s educational background is specified as the independent variable. The study group consists of 379 students studying Information Technology at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria in South Africa. No correlation was found between a first year computer programming student’s educational background and performance in programming.