An Empirical Study on Students' Ability to Comprehend Design Patterns

Autor/inn/en	Chatzigeorgiou, Alexander; Tsantalis, Nikolaos; Deligiannis, Ignatios
Titel	An Empirical Study on Students' Ability to Comprehend Design Patterns
Quelle	In: Computers & Education, 51 (2008) 3, S.1007-1016 (10 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0360-1315
DOI	10.1016/j.compedu.2007.10.003
Schlagwörter	Computer Software; Computer Science; Engineering; Observation; Courses; Computer System Design; Science Instruction; Postsecondary Education; Student Attitudes; Instructional Improvement; Classroom Research; Assignments; Teaching Methods + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Informatik; Maschinenbau; Beobachtung; Kursangebot; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Post-secondary education; Tertiäre Bildung; Schülerverhalten; Unterrichtsqualität; Assignment; Auftrag; Zuweisung; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode
Abstract	Design patterns have become a widely acknowledged software engineering practice and therefore have been incorporated in the curricula of most computer science departments. This paper presents an observational study on students' ability to understand and apply design patterns. Within the context of a postgraduate software engineering course, students had to deliver two versions of a software system; one without and one with design patterns. The former served as a poorly designed system suffering from architectural problems, while the latter served as an improved system where design problems had been solved by appropriate patterns. The experiment allowed the quantitative evaluation of students' preference to patterns. Moreover, it was possible to assess students' ability in relating design problems with patterns and interpreting the impact of patterns on software metrics. The overall goal was to empirically identify ways in which a course on design patterns could be improved. (Contains 4 figures and 2 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10