Lorna Uden School of Computing |
Alan Dix aQtive limited and Lancaster University |
Paper presented at IFIP World Computer Congress - ICEUT2000 Educational Uses of Communication and Information Technologies, Beijing, China, August 21-25, 2000
View full paper (PDF,49K).
Full reference:
L.Uden and A. Dix (2000). Lifelong Learning for Software Engineers. IFIP World Computer Congress - ICEUT2000 Educational Uses of Communication and Information Technologies, Beijing.
http://www.hcibook.com/alan/papers/wcc-pbl-2000/
URL for related work: http://www.hcibook.com/alan/hci-education/
Software engineers need problem-solving, critical thinking and metacognitive skills in addition to their technical expertise. They must have lifelong learning skills to cope with the ever-changing nature of the software evolution. This paper describes case studies of how these lifelong learning skills can be acquired through Problem-based learning. Due to increasingly limited resources in higher education, students must adopt more independent and learner-centred approaches. In order to address the needs of such students, a final year computing science module was developed in which students working in groups learned how to learn through problem-based learning (PBL). Studies over the two years of running the ISD module revealed that students who took the module became better students, able to transfer their learning to other modules and work. Feedback from graduates now in employment comment on how the module has enabled them to cope better with their software engineering jobs.
keywords: Problem-based learning, software engineering education, lifelong learning.