The paper argues for the importance of the constructivist learning theory to software development education. Constructivism frames learning less as the product of passive transmission than a process of active construction whereby learners construct their own knowledge based upon prior knowledge and experience. Now that a number of software development courses offer project-based teaching, it seems that the importance of a constructivist perspective has been implicitly well-taken in the current practice. What these approaches explicitly lack is a concrete methodology of how to carry out the constructivist perspective and its consequences for learning. This paper reports on a constructivist approach to object-oriented software development at the undergraduate level. It explores methodological aspects of the approach and discusses the results from its evaluation.
We have applied Problem-Based Learning (PBL) on an introductory programming course for several years with positive results. In this paper we present the outcomes and discuss our experiences of applying a modified version of PBL such that needs less tutoring resources and could better be used in large-scale courses, too.
PBL has many positive effects on studying: Students report that they liked the social aspect of studying in a group. Generally students appreciated the possibility to be active participants in a course. On the other hand, group dynamic difficulties, tolerance of uncertainty and demanding studying skills caused problems that were too hard to overcome to some students. In this paper we introduce different versions of PBL, discuss efficiently and inefficiently working PBL groups and present their characters. We also discuss the possible reasons for differently working groups. Finally, we give some suggestions for interventions that might help the PBL groups to work better.
Currently virtual learning environments (VLEs) and learning objects (LOs) repositories are under active implementation into general education and vocational training system in Lithuania. The article aims to review LOs interoperability standards development tendencies as well as to compare VLEs under existing well-developed pedagogical and technical evaluation frameworks in order to suggest the most suitable one for wider implementation to support active socio-constructivist pedagogies in in-service teacher training and overall in Lithuanian general education and vocational training systems.
Understanding about the objectives of ICT literacy and the ways in which it should be enhanced vary. A comprehensive theoretical framework for the analysis of notions of ICT literacy is presented. Current notions of ICT literacy in different segments of policymaking and implementation in Australia are analysed and compared. Two dimensions (intended and implemented) and three theoretical perspectives (ICT policy, literacy policy and teaching and learning) are covered in this analysis. Similarities and differences in the understanding of ICT literacy at the national and regional levels and in various segments of decision-making and implementation are revealed. The complexity of the ICT literacy phenomenon is described. It is shown that, at the intended level, the formation of the notion of ICT literacy is strongly influenced by thinking about ICT literacy in ICT and educational policies. At the implemented level, the notion of ICT literacy is strongly influenced by various local factors and even implementation routines.
Course-support environments are an important technical development relating to computer communications in education that involves the linking of a web-compliant user interface and web-compliant tools and applets with an underlying database. This paper presents a comparison among three different course support environments. One of them is a commercial product and the other two are open source software. The comparison includes various features from the student, and the instructor point of view.
On the basis of national research data on schoolchildren' achievements, the article deals with implementation of educational software in the process of teaching world study in primary school and different natural sciences in basic school. It has been established that educational software is often enough implemented during the classes on world study in primary school in comparison with natural science lessons provided in basic school. Primary educational software is regularly used in the city site, less frequently - in the regional centre and rarely in the rural area schools. On the opposite of the city site schools, basic educational software is widely employed in the rural area. The comparison of the rates of implementation of educational software during the different classes on natural sciences reveals that educational software is most frequently applied during the classes on biology, the least frequently - during the classes on physics.
This paper describes a study aimed at identifying different profiles of students' project development processes. Specifically, we assessed the use of abstract data types for the development of knowledge-based projects.
The concept of abstract data types was introduced to high school students who took the course ``Computer Science-Logic Programming''. During their studies the students learned and practiced various tools and methods of project development, one of which was based on the use of abstract data types as tools for problem solving and knowledge representation.
To this end, a one-day workshop for team development of mini-projects was organized, and the whole development process was audio and video documented, categorized and analyzed. The profiles of team behavior in the project development process were specified. The analysis of the profiles resulted in identifying four types of project development teams, all of which employed some organizing tool in developing their projects. Two types of the developing teams used abstract data types and two used other methods. The findings indicated that the process of project development of those who used abstract data types was more structured and more organized than others.