research-article

Teaching Mathematical Reasoning Principles for Software Correctness and Its Assessment

Authors:

Svetlana V. Drachova,

Jason O. Hallstrom,

Joseph E. Hollingsworth,

Murali SitaramanAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), Volume 15, Issue 3

Article No.: 15, Pages 1 - 22

https://doi.org/10.1145/2716316

Published: 19 August 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Undergraduate computer science students need to learn analytical reasoning skills to develop high-quality software and to understand why the software they develop works as specified. To accomplish this central educational objective, this article describes a systematic process of introducing reasoning skills into the curriculum and assessing how well students have learned those skills. To facilitate assessment, a comprehensive inventory of principles for reasoning about correctness that captures the finer details of basic skills that students need to learn has been defined and used. The principles can be taught at various levels of depth across the curriculum in a variety of courses.

The use of a particular instructional process is illustrated to inculcate reasoning principles across several iterations of a sophomore-level development foundations course and a junior-level software engineering course. The article summarizes how learning outcomes motivated by the inventory of reasoning principles lead to questions that in turn form the basis for a careful analysis of student understanding and for fine-tuning teaching interventions that together facilitate continuous improvements to instruction.

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Teaching Mathematical Reasoning Principles for Software Correctness and Its Assessment

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computing Education

ACM Transactions on Computing Education Volume 15, Issue 3

September 2015

69 pages

EISSN:1946-6226

DOI:10.1145/2809889

Editors:
Robert McCartney
University of Connecticut, USA
,
Josh Tenenberg
University of Washington Tacoma, USA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 19 August 2015

Accepted: 01 December 2014

Revised: 01 July 2014

Received: 01 July 2013

Published in TOCE Volume 15, Issue 3

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Cited By

Gordon CHermans FBohrer R(2024)Mocking Temporal LogicProceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on SPLASH-E10.1145/3689493.3689980(98-109)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689493.3689980
Dümmel NWestfechtel BEhmann M(2023)A Multi-Paradigm Programming Language for EducationProceedings of the 5th European Conference on Software Engineering Education10.1145/3593663.3593666(236-245)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3593663.3593666
Aydoğan Yenmez AGökçe S(2023)Pursuing the traces of mathematical reasoningAsia Pacific Education Review10.1007/s12564-023-09895-5Online publication date: 21-Sep-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-023-09895-5
Neutens TCoolsaet KWyffels F(2022)Assessment of Code, Which Aspects Do Teachers Consider and How Are They Valued?ACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/351713322:4(1-27)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517133
Hurtig NHollingsworth JBlankenship SKraemer ESitaraman MHallstrom JBecker BQuille KLaakso MBarendsen ESimon (2022)Network Visualization and Assessment of Student Reasoning About ConditionalsProceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Vol. 110.1145/3502718.3524793(255-261)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
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Santos JAndrade WBrunet JMelo M(2022)A Systematic Literature Review on Predictive Cognitive Skills in Novice Programming2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962582(1-9)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
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Sandika IKrisna EAnindia I(2020)The need of mathematical literacy competency for informatics graduates: Preliminary study at STMIK STIKOM IndonesiaJournal of Physics: Conference Series10.1088/1742-6596/1469/1/0121441469(012144)Online publication date: 26-Mar-2020
https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1469/1/012144
Fowler MCook MPlis KSchwab TSun YSitaraman MHallstrom JHollingsworth JHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Impact of Steps, Instruction, and Motivation on Learning Symbolic Reasoning Using an Online ToolProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287401(1039-1045)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
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Kraemer ESitaraman MHollingsworth JMottok J(2018)An Activity-Based Undergraduate Software Engineering Course to Engage Students and Encourage LearningProceedings of the 3rd European Conference of Software Engineering Education10.1145/3209087.3209100(18-25)Online publication date: 14-Jun-2018
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Cook MFowler MHallstrom JHollingsworth JSchwab TSun YSitaraman MPolycarpou IRead JAndreou PArmoni M(2018)Where exactly are the difficulties in reasoning logically about code? experimentation with an online systemProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3197091.3197133(39-44)Online publication date: 2-Jul-2018
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