Identifying Domain-Specific Cognitive Strategies for Software Engineering

Abstract

Due to the rapidly changing nature of today's work environment, software engineering (SE) students are required to have self-regulated learning (SRL) and problem solving skills. Previous research suggests that training students in the use of domain-specific cognitive strategies and using scaffolded instruction for strategy training improves students' SRL and problem solving task performance. In order to identify SE-specific cognitive strategies, we conducted a survey of advanced-level SE students. We then conducted a pre-test and post-test experiment with one control and two treatment groups, to analyze the effectiveness of identified strategies in improving students' task performance. The control group was not exposed to any strategies, while one treatment group was instructed verbally in the use of strategies and the other was trained using a newly developed scaffolded strategy training module. The results of the experiment demonstrate significant improvement in post-test task performance for both treatment groups, with a further increase in performance for those undertaking the training module.