research-article

A methodology for exploring students' experiences and interaction with large-scale software through role-play and phenomenography

Author:

Jonas BoustedtAuthors Info & Claims

ICER '08: Proceedings of the Fourth international Workshop on Computing Education Research

Pages 27 - 38

https://doi.org/10.1145/1404520.1404524

Published: 06 September 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Traditional interview methods within qualitative research often capture the purely academic perspective on phenomena. To address this problem, an innovative research method, combining role-playing with phenomenography is proposed. The approach suggested in this paper aims to stimulate participants to widen their perspectives by encouraging them to a deeper engagement with a specific activity, thereby enabling them to re ect actively on their actions and on concepts involved in a specific situated context. In the outlined strategy, the role-playing involved realistic work with large-scale software. This was immediately followed by a debriefing using phenomenographic research interviews when the participants still had the experience fresh in mind. The phenomenographic analysis of the interview transcripts confirmed that the method was successful. The subjects frequently expressed their understanding of theoretical concepts in relation to their experiences from working with the software. The more advanced ways to experience the phenomena was often expressed - and sometimes inspired - by the software's way to take advantage of the concepts. The specific use of the described method resulted in empirical insights into how students experience object-oriented concepts in software engineering, such as the Java Interface.

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Cited By

Lunn SRoss M(2021)Methodology Matters: Employing Phenomenography to Investigate Experiences in Computing Fields and the Application of Theoretical Frameworks2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637058(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637058
Bringula RElon RMelosantos LTarrosa J(2019)Teaching Agile Methodology through Role-PlayingProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Education and Multimedia Technology10.1145/3345120.3352733(355-359)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3345120.3352733
Ghazi APetersen KReddy SNekkanti H(2019)Survey Research in Software Engineering: Problems and Mitigation StrategiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28810417(24703-24718)Online publication date: 2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2881041
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

A methodology for exploring students' experiences and interaction with large-scale software through role-play and phenomenography
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICER '08: Proceedings of the Fourth international Workshop on Computing Education Research

September 2008

192 pages

ISBN:9781605582160

DOI:10.1145/1404520

Co-chair:
Michael E. Caspersen
University of Aarhus, Denmark
,
General Chairs:
Raymond Lister
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
,
Mike Clancy
University of California-Berkeley, USA

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

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]

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Published: 06 September 2008

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ICER '08: International Computing Education Research Workshop

September 6 - 7, 2008

Sydney, Australia

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Cited By

Lunn SRoss M(2021)Methodology Matters: Employing Phenomenography to Investigate Experiences in Computing Fields and the Application of Theoretical Frameworks2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637058(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637058
Bringula RElon RMelosantos LTarrosa J(2019)Teaching Agile Methodology through Role-PlayingProceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Education and Multimedia Technology10.1145/3345120.3352733(355-359)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3345120.3352733
Ghazi APetersen KReddy SNekkanti H(2019)Survey Research in Software Engineering: Problems and Mitigation StrategiesIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28810417(24703-24718)Online publication date: 2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2881041
Decker ASimkins D(2016)Leveraging role play to explore software and game development process2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757685(1-5)Online publication date: Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757685
Decker ASimkins D(2016)Uncovering difficulties in learning for the intermediate programmer2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757446(1-8)Online publication date: Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757446
Decker AEgert CPhelps A(2016)Splat! er, shmup? A postmortem on a capstone production experience2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757399(1-9)Online publication date: Oct-2016
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757399
Mendoza-Garcia JCardella MOakes W(2014)Identifying the variation of experiences when dealing with problems in complex systems2014 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) Proceedings10.1109/FIE.2014.7044347(1-4)Online publication date: Oct-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2014.7044347
Boustedt J(2009)Students' understanding of the concept of interface in a situated contextComputer Science Education10.1080/0899340090281998019:1(15-36)Online publication date: Mar-2009
https://doi.org/10.1080/08993400902819980

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