Teaching and Learning Qualitative Research ≈ Conducting Qualitative Research

This paper presents a teaching framework for a graduate course on Qualitative Research Methods course. The organizing concept of the teaching framework is that teaching and learning qualitative research are similar in essence to conducting qualitative research. The teaching framework is based on ten principles of teaching and learning qualitative research methods that result from the application of ten principles of conducting qualitative research. In other words, teaching and learning a course that deals with qualitative research implements the principles of such research. The teaching framework was constructed during a reflective research that lasted four years. During the course of the study, the researchers-lecturers collected and analyzed various course assignments performed by 62 students, online student discussions, observations made during class, interviews, and occasional conversations with students. The study contributes to research on the pedagogy of research methods in general and of qualitative research methods in particular

Learning Human Aspects of Collaborative Software Development

Collaboration has become increasingly widespread in the software industry as systems have become larger and more complex, adding human complexity to the technological complexity already involved in developing software systems. To deal with this complexity, human-centric software development methods, such as Extreme Programming and other agile methods, have been developed and implemented. Aiming to prepare future software developers for today\u27s software industry, this paper presents a framework for developing collaborative learning tools and activities, and examples that were developed for the course Human Aspects of Software Engineering in order to assist students in learning collaborative software development. The learning processes and knowledge construction undergone by the students in the study were examined empirically, both in general and with respect to collaboration in particular. Results indicate that, based on their individual and group in-class experiences and reflections, students developed skills and constructed both practical and theoretical knowledge relating to successful collaborative software development

Reducing Abstraction When Learning Graph Theory

This article presents research on students ’ understanding of basic concepts in Graph Theory. Students ’ understanding is analyzed through the lens of the theoretical framework of reducing abstraction (Hazzan, 1999). As it turns out, in spite of the relative simplicity of the concepts that are introduced in the introductory part of a traditional Graph Theory course, some students exhibit ways of thinking that indicate reduction of the level of abstraction. The importance of this study is derived from the importance of graph algorithms in any Computer Science curriculum and the centrality of the concept of abstraction in Computer Science education