Designing process-based software curriculum

Computer science education traditionally has stemmed from its mathematical roots and has been related to practice through instruction of programming languages. Good software engineering practice, in contrast, requires expertise at a complex of activities that involve the intellectual skills of planning, designing, evaluating, and revising. Cognitive research has revealed that developing intellectual skills, such as these, requires (a) explicit instruction and practice, (b) in the context in which such skills will be applied, (c) in carefully structured ways. We are applying the techniques of cognitive apprenticeship, situated cognition, and reflective practice, based on our earlier successful application of such techniques, to the development of laboratories to accompany two undergraduate classes. The first section of this paper provides the foundations from the computer science/software engineering domain that justify our effort. The second section provides the background in cognitive research we use to structure the learning environment and activities for the students. Section three provides an overview of the goals we have established as part of this development activity. Section four describes the activities we have implemented in the sophomore computer science course. We conclude our remarks with a discussion of problems and intended directions.