article

Using software testing to move students from trial-and-error to reflection-in-action

Author:

Stephen H. EdwardsAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 36, Issue 1

Pages 26 - 30

https://doi.org/10.1145/1028174.971312

Published: 01 March 2004 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

Introductory computer science students rely on a trial and error approach to fixing errors and debugging for too long. Moving to a reflection in action strategy can help students become more successful. Traditional programming assignments are usually assessed in a way that ignores the skills needed for reflection in action, but software testing promotes the hypothesis-forming and experimental validation that are central to this mode of learning. By changing the way assignments are assessed--where students are responsible for demonstrating correctness through testing, and then assessed on how well they achieve this goal--it is possible to reinforce desired skills. Automated feedback can also play a valuable role in encouraging students while also showing them where they can improve.

References

[1]

Allen, E., Cartwright, R., and Stoler, B. DrJava: a lightweight pedagogic environment for Java. In Proc. 33rd SIGCSE Technical Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 2002, pp. 137--141.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[2]

Beck, K. Test-Driven Development: By Example. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA. 2003.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[3]

Bergin, J., Stehlik, M., Roberts, J., Pattis, R. Karel J. Robot: A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Object-Oriented Programming in Java. Unpublished manuscript available at: http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/KarelJava2ed/

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

Buck, D., and Stucki, D.J. Design early considered harmful: graduated exposure to complexity and structure based on levels of cognitive development. In Proc. 31st SIGCSE Technical Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 2000, pp. 75--79.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

Buck, D., and Stucki, D.J. JKarelRobot: a case study in supporting levels of cognitive development in the computer science curriculum. In Proc. 32nd SIGCSE Technical Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 2001, pp. 16--20.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[6]

Comer, J., and Roggio, R. Teaching a Java-based CS1 course in an academically-diverse environment. In Proc. 33rd SIGCSE Technical Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 2002, pp. 142--146.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

Cortex, Inc. Clover: a code coverage tool for Java. Web page accessed Mar. 21, 2003: http://www.thecortex.net/clover/

Google Scholar

[8]

Decker, R. and Hirshfield, S. The top 10 reasons why object-oriented programming can't be taught in CS 1. In Proc. 25th Annual SIGCSE Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 1994, pp. 51--55.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[9]

Edwards, S.H. Rethinking computer science education from a test-first perspective. In Addendum to the 2003 Proc. Conf. Object-oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications, ACM, to appear.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[10]

JUnit Home Page. Web page last accessed Mar. 21, 2003: http://www.junit.org/

Google Scholar

[11]

Kölling, M. BlueJ--The Interactive Java Environment. Web page, last accessed Mar. 21, 2003: http://www.bluej.org/

Google Scholar

[12]

Krause, K.L. Computer science in the Air Force Academy core curriculum. In Proc.13th SIGCSE Technical Symp. Computer Science Education, ACM, 1982, pp. 144--146.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[13]

Schön, D. The Reflecting Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith, 1983.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Fuchs WMcDonald AGautam AKazerouni A(2024)Recommendations for Improving End-User Programming Education: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry StudentsJournal of Chemical Education10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219101:8(3085-3096)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219
Lemos OSilveira FFerrari FSilva TGuerra EGarcia A(2024)Unraveling the code: an in-depth empirical study on the impact of development practices in auxiliary functions implementationSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09682-432:3(1137-1174)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11219-024-09682-4
Santos LSousa NGomes LGarcia JFerreira F(2023)An experiment on software test creation: can EvoSuite help test teaching?Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3629479.3629499(281-290)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3629479.3629499
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Using software testing to move students from trial-and-error to reflection-in-action
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        Information science education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software verification and validation
      1. Software defect analysis
        Software testing and debugging

Recommendations

Using software testing to move students from trial-and-error to reflection-in-action
SIGCSE '04: Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Introductory computer science students rely on a trial and error approach to fixing errors and debugging for too long. Moving to a reflection in action strategy can help students become more successful. Traditional programming assignments are usually ...
Test-driven learning: intrinsic integration of testing into the CS/SE curriculum

Test-driven learning (TDL) is an approach to teaching computer programming that involves introducing and exploring new concepts through automated unit tests. TDL offers the potential of teaching testing for free, of improving programmer comprehension ...
Teaching software testing: automatic grading meets test-first coding
OOPSLA '03: Companion of the 18th annual ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications

A new approach to teaching software testing is proposed: students use test-driven development on programming assignments, and an automated grading tool assesses their testing performance and provides feedback. The basics of the approach, screenshots of ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 36, Issue 1

March 2004

501 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/1028174

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '04: Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
March 2004
544 pages
ISBN:1581137982
DOI:10.1145/971300
Conference Chairs:
Dan Joyce
Villanova University
,
Deborah Knox
The College of New Jersey
,
Program Chairs:
Wanda Dann
Ithaca College
,
Tom Naps
University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2004

Published in SIGCSE Volume 36, Issue 1

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

87
Total Citations
View Citations
2,684
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)136
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)16

Reflects downloads up to 30 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Fuchs WMcDonald AGautam AKazerouni A(2024)Recommendations for Improving End-User Programming Education: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry StudentsJournal of Chemical Education10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219101:8(3085-3096)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00219
Lemos OSilveira FFerrari FSilva TGuerra EGarcia A(2024)Unraveling the code: an in-depth empirical study on the impact of development practices in auxiliary functions implementationSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-024-09682-432:3(1137-1174)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11219-024-09682-4
Santos LSousa NGomes LGarcia JFerreira F(2023)An experiment on software test creation: can EvoSuite help test teaching?Proceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Software Quality10.1145/3629479.3629499(281-290)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3629479.3629499
Shin AKazerouni A(2023)A Model of How Students Engineer Test Cases With FeedbackACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/362860424:1(1-31)Online publication date: 20-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628604
Buffardi KHaiduc SSchneider J(2023)Cognitive Reflection in Software Verification and TestingProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/ICSE-SEET58685.2023.00006(1-10)Online publication date: 17-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEET58685.2023.00006
Trætteberg HMavroudi ASharma KGiannakos M(2023)Utilizing Real-Time Descriptive Learning Analytics to Enhance Learning ProgrammingLearning, Design, and Technology10.1007/978-3-319-17461-7_117(3709-3729)Online publication date: 15-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17461-7_117
Lojo NFox ABecker BQuille KLaakso MBarendsen ESimon (2022)Teaching Test-Writing As a Variably-Scaffolded Programming PatternProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524789(498-504)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3502718.3524789
Smyth SPetzold JSchürmann JKarbus FMargaria Tvon Hanxleden RSteffen B(2022)Executable Documentation: Test-First in ActionLeveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Software Engineering10.1007/978-3-031-19756-7_8(135-156)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19756-7_8
Shaffer CKazerouni ASherriff MMerkle LCutter PMonge ASheard J(2021)The Impact of Programming Project Milestones on Procrastination, Project Outcomes, and Course OutcomesProceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3408877.3432356(907-913)Online publication date: 3-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3408877.3432356
Bijlsma LDoorn NPassier HPootjes HStuurman SErdogmus HMoreno A(2021)How do students test software units?Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Joint Track on Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00029(189-198)Online publication date: 25-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00029
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Using software testing to move students from trial-and-error to reflection-in-action

Test-driven learning: intrinsic integration of testing into the CS/SE curriculum

Teaching software testing: automatic grading meets test-first coding