Hi all,
Maria, thanks for alerting me to Ben's question!
Ben, please see the article that Maria linked to. Also, you are welcome
to look at the Software Factory web site at
http://www.softwarefactory.cc/ for further information.
We do gather data about software development expertise in the factory,
but currently our focus is on process and project -level questions. For
instance, we are observing how (student) developers go from technical
programming skills to team process skills with fuzzy tasks from a
customer when using Agile software development. Another thing we have
experimented with is how to conduct studies on Lean development of
software products, where the (student) team works with a customer to
define and then implement a Minimum Viable Product to test a value
hypothesis regarding the product. We work with Master's students, and
what is trained here is how to take already existing programming skills
and knowledge and produce programs that satisfy a non-technical goal
(e.g. a business goal).
Another limitation we have is that our data is not longitudinal across
individual students' studies but rather longitudinal across the
development projects and the development of the factory itself. Our
project cycles are approximately seven weeks long and students come and
go over those seven weeks.
However, I would like to suggest the following articles from some of my
colleagues who are looking more at the undergraduates (reprints are
available at http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/en/rage/publications):
A.Vihavainen, M.Paksula and M.Luukkainen: Extreme Apprenticeship Method
in Teaching Programming for Beginners. In SIGCSE 2011: Proceedings of
the 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. ACM
Press, 2011.
A. Vihavainen, M. Luukkainen and J. Kurhila: Multi-faceted Support for
MOOC in Programming. To appear in SIGITE’12: Proceedings of the 13th
Annual Conference on Information Technology Education: Calgary, Alberta,
Canada on October 11-13. ACM Press, 2012.
M. Luukkainen, A. Vihavainen and T. Vikberg: Three Years of Design-based
Research to Reform a Software Engineering Curriculum. To appear in
SIGITE’12: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Information
Technology Education: Calgary, Alberta, Canada on October 11-13. ACM
Press, 2012.
They are now following students even before they enter the university,
all the way through the Bachelor's degree. Perhaps you could get in
touch with them and find out what data they may have available? You
could refer to me (and cc me so I can chime in). :)
Best regards,
Fabian
On Thu, 2012-09-27 at 11:01 +, Kutar Maria wrote:
Hi Ben,
It is possible that data of this type is being gathered at
the software factory - see the article in the last ppig newsletter.
I'm sure that Fabian (cc'd) will be happy to discuss.
regards
Maria
Dr Maria Kutar
Senior Lecturer in Information Systems, Salford Business School
Director of PGT Programmes in International Operations and Information
Management
Web: http://www.salford.ac.uk/business-school/business-academics/maria-kutar
Twitter: @mariakutar
Room 325, Maxwell Building, University of Salford , Salford, M5 4WT,
UK
Tel. ++ 44 (0)161 295 3056 Fax. ++ 44 (0)161 295 5394
On 26 Sep 2012, at 16:38, Ben du Boulay wrote:
Dear PPIG,
Does anyone know of accessible data on the development of
programming expertise across the years of an undergraduate degree?
I know about the phenomenographic thesis by Shirley Booth observing
undergraduates and the longitudinal study by Judy Kay and Richard
Thomas of the development of expertise in using the SAM editor over
a number of years, but are there any other authors who have observed
students over time to map in detail how their understanding of
programming develops?
Many thanks
Ben
Benedict du Boulay
Department of Informatics
University of Sussex
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