Here we share our experiences in applying project-based learning and its impact on critical thinking skills. In the software development (SD) track of information technology majors, upper-level SD courses are designed to combine students' accumulated programming knowledge for learning to develop software applications, reaching their ultimate goal. Usually, SD courses aim to maximize student success and achievement by training students with instructor-defined projects having known solutions. On one hand, students apply past knowledge and skills and improve problemsolving while realizing the project. On the other, students can become disconnected from, or bored with, the problems since students do not own the project. In addition, the projects do not present unknown challenges requiring to exercise critical thinking and creativity. As an alternative, we assign students novel real-world projects, proposed by external clients who direct the development of the respective software product. In-class simulation of real-world scenarios is known to be more effective for learning than lecturing in software development and engineering education [1]. We propose that project-based learning using a previously unsolved problem will improve student critical thinking and problem solving skills, two key STEM competencies important for software engineering. Furthermore, we expect a positive synergy between student success, as project goals are attained, and motivation to complete the project. We measured a significant increase of critical thinking skills in a senior-level undergraduate Software Development course. We assessed these skills using the CAT (Critical Thinking Assessment Test), a standard instrument developed by the Tennessee Tech University [2]. We administered pre-and post-CAT in two sections of the course in Fall 2018, at the beginning and end of the semester, respectively. We observed a statistically significant (one-tailed, paired t-test, p < 0.05) increase of 11% between pre-and post CAT scores (Fig. 1). Our preliminary results suggest that the project-based approach to teaching software development increases Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all 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 third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
The software industry has been seeing a steady growth worldwide. However, the quality of the developed software is tightly related to the supply of skilled and capable software developers who are able to cope with many challenges and maintain a high level of critical thinking during the software development life cycle. Software skills are usually gained in upper level software development courses in undergraduate IT majors. We have been applying an active learning methodology for teaching critical thinking in the classroom. Our college is one of the most diverse colleges in the southeast region, which makes our classroom a good model of national diversity. In assessing critical thinking, the traditional and generic approach is to measure skills that are universal and subject-agnostic. In this study, we report that the universal skill assessment for software development is ineffective in measuring students' growth based on inconclusive testing results and a weak test-retest reliability score. We suspect that students were unmotivated by several factors, which includes students being passive listeners and the subject being unrelated to software. In addition, we report a significant potential for developing domain-specific critical thinking exercises and testing that could serve to train the students and to assess their skills at the same time. We would like to emphasize that our conclusion is independent of software development, and could be generalized to develop exercises for other subjects.
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