A design method for object-oriented programming

Object-oriented programming has come forth as an important programming paradigm in the 1980's. As more and more people practice object-oriented programming, the subject of how to design and develop a system towards an object-oriented implementation becomes important. There is, therefore, a general demand for a design method which is specially developed for object-oriented programming. The theme of this thesis is to develop such a design method. The thesis starts off with a comprehensive background on object-oriented programming and how it differs from traditional programming. It also gives a detailed analysis of why existing design methods are inadequate for object-oriented programming. The thesis then presents the design method which has been developed in this research. The different stages of the design method and the various tasks that have to be performed at each stage are discussed thoroughly. The design method also embeds a design description language which allows system designers to communicate with each other during the design phase and this is also talked about in the thesis. Inheritance is regarded as an important feature found in object-oriented programming. A design method without substantial support for inheritance is considered to be incomplete. Therefore, a mechanism which is called the inheritance factorisation process is developed to assist system designers to construct class hierarchies in object-oriented programming. The mechanism has a formal model which ensures its correctness. The details of the formal model and the issues concerning how to use the mechanism forms a crucial part of this thesis. To examine the performance of the inheritance factorisation process, a factorisation engine is implemented and experiments have been carried out. To illustrate how the design method is used in system designs, two case studies have been carried out and are presented in this thesis. The result of this thesis is a design method which guides system designers to organise the design activities towards an object-oriented implementation. It also forms the basis of future work which will lead to a computer-aided software engineering environment for object-oriented programming

Students’ interaction anxiety and social phobia in interprofessional education in Hong Kong: mapping a new research direction

AbstractBackground Interprofessional education (IPE) has been promoted as a breakthrough in healthcare because of the impact when professionals work as a team. However, despite its inception dating back to the 1960s, its science has taken a long time to advance. There is a need to theorize IPE to cultivate creative insights for a nuanced understanding of IPE. This study aims to propose a research agenda on social interaction by understanding the measurement scales used and guiding researchers to contribute to the discussion of social processes in IPE.Method This quantitative research was undertaken in a cross-institutional IPE involving 925 healthcare students (Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Chinese Medicine, Pharmacy, Speech Language Pathology, Clinical Psychology, Food and Nutritional Science and Physiotherapy) from two institutions in Hong Kong. Participants completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6). We applied a construct validation approach: within-network and between-network validation. We performed confirmatory factors analysis, t-test, analysis of variance and regression analysis.Results CFA results indicated that current data fit the a priori model providing support to within-network validity [RMSEA=.08, NFI=.959, CFI=.965, IFI=.965, TLI=.955]. The criteria for acceptable fit were met. The scales were invariant between genders, across year levels and disciplines. Results indicated that social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted behavioural engagement (F = 25.093, p<.001, R2=.065) and positively predicted behavioural disaffection (F = 22.169, p<.001, R2=.057) to IPE, suggesting between-network validity.Conclusions Our data provided support for the validity of the scales when used among healthcare students in Hong Kong. SIAS-6 and SPS-6 have sound psychometric properties based on students’ data in Hong Kong. We identified quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs to guide researchers in getting involved in the discussion of students’ social interactions in IPE.Key MessagesThe Social Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6) scales have sound psychometric properties based on the large-scale healthcare students’ data in IPE in Hong Kong.Social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted students’ behavioural engagement with IPE and positively predicted behavioural disaffection. The scales are invariant in terms of gender, year level and discipline.Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies are proposed to aid researchers to contribute in healthcare education literature using the SIAS-6 and SPS-6