The Impact of Combining Storytelling with Lecture on Female Students in Software Engineering Education

Software engineering courses are characterized by heavy theoretical and complex concepts that might be challenging to teach while keeping students engaged in the classroom, which might impact them from pursuing software engineering careers later. Software engineering is well known to be a male dominated field even though the first software engineer was a woman. Research has shown that storytelling can be used to improve students and teachers engagement in primary and secondary education. However, there is a lack of research on storytelling application and efficiency in higher education to teach complex concepts. This study explored the impact of combining a story with lecture on undergraduate female students in a software engineering course. We investigated the following hypothesis: Combining storytelling with lectures can improve the female students interest in software engineering. A questionnaire study has been conducted with 24 female undergraduate students in the classroom. Students had no prior knowledge on software engineering before the study. The questionnaire was designed to be simple to motivate students to participate in the study. It contained three questions to capture the interest of female students in pursuing a career in software engineering: prior to the lecture, after the lecture, and after the story. The results showed that the story incorporated in the lecture had great impact on female students perception about software engineering. Combining storytelling with software engineering lectures seems a promising tool to engage female students in higher education and increase their interest in pursuing a career in software engineering.

[1]  Sara M. Flanagan.  How does storytelling within higher education contribute to the learning experience of early years students? , 2015, The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning.

[2]  Juho Hamari,et al.  Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[3]  Rina Benmayor,et al.  Digital Storytelling as a Signature Pedagogy for the New Humanities , 2008 .

[4]  Abiola A. Farinde,et al.  The Underrepresentation of African American Female Students in STEM Fields: Implications for Classroom Teachers. , 2012 .

[5]  Ming-Te Wang,et al.  Gender Gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Current Knowledge, Implications for Practice, Policy, and Future Directions , 2017, Educational psychology review.

[6]  Stan Kurkovsky,et al.  Teaching Software Engineering with LEGO Serious Play , 2015, ITiCSE.

[7]  Maxine G Alterio,et al.  Learning Through Storytelling in Higher Education: Using Reflection and Experience to Improve Learning , 2003 .

[8]  Mary Shaw,et al.  Software engineering education: a roadmap , 2000, ICSE '00.

[9]  Gloria Childress Townsend,et al.  Using Scratch and Female Role Models while Storytelling Improves Fifth-Grade Students' Attitudes toward Computing , 2017, SIGCSE.

[10]  Jenessa R. Shapiro,et al.  The Role of Stereotype Threats in Undermining Girls’ and Women’s Performance and Interest in STEM Fields , 2012 .

[11]  George G. Mitchell,et al.  An assessment strategy to determine learning outcomes in a software engineering problem-based learning course , 2004 .

[12]  Dana Craciun,et al.  ROLE - PLAYING AS A CREATIVE METHOD IN SCIENCE EDUCATION , 2010 .

[13]  Jane Stout,et al.  Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics , 2014 .

[14]  Patrick Lai,et al.  A comparison of the effects of problem‐based learning and lecturing on the development of students' critical thinking , 2006, Medical education.

[15]  Pip Hardy,et al.  Tell me a story--a conceptual exploration of storytelling in healthcare education. , 2011, Nurse education today.

[16]  F. V. Gils.  Potential Applications of Digital Storytelling in Education , 2005 .

[17]  M. R. K. Krishna Rao,et al.  Storytelling and puzzles in a software engineering course , 2006, SIGCSE '06.

[18]  Chris J. Kobus.  Storytelling - A Most Powerful Tool in Shaping Lesson Plans in Engineering Education , 2013 .

[19]  Joanne McGrath Cohoon,et al.  Must there be so few? Including women in CS , 2003, 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings..

[20]  Penelope Lockwood,et al.  “Someone Like Me can be Successful”: Do College Students Need Same-Gender Role Models? , 2006 .

[21]  Robyn Cooper,et al.  Problem Solving And Creativity And Design: What Influence Do They Have On Girls' Interest In STEM Subject Areas? , 2013 .

[22]  Francisco J. García-Peñalvo,et al.  Trends in studies developed in Europe focused on the gender gap in STEM , 2019, Interacción.

[23]  Vahid Garousi,et al.  Closing the Gap Between Software Engineering Education and Industrial Needs , 2018, IEEE Software.

[24]  Mary Lou Maher,et al.  Flipped Classroom Strategies for CS Education , 2015, SIGCSE.

[25]  R. Henry,et al.  Teaching and storytelling: An ethnographic study of the instructional process in the college classroom , 1983 .

[26]  Nuno Pombo,et al.  How to Get a Badge? Unlock Your Mind : Motivation through Student Empowerment , 2019, 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON).

[27]  Murat Akçayir,et al.  The flipped classroom: A review of its advantages and challenges , 2018, Comput. Educ..

[28]  Ronald J. Burke,et al.  Women and Minorities in STEM: A Primer , 2007 .

[29]  Laurie A. Williams,et al.  Voices of women in a software engineering course: reflections on collaboration , 2004, JERC.

[30]  Sofia Ouhbi.  Evaluating Role Playing Efficiency to Teach Requirements Engineering , 2019, 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON).

[31]  Miltiadis D. Lytras,et al.  (Re)Defining Smart Education: Towards Dynamic Education and Information Systems for Innovation Networks , 2018 .

[32]  Joey J. Lee,et al.  Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? , 2011 .

[33]  C. Abrahamson,et al.  Storytelling as a Pedagogical Tool in Higher Education , 1998 .

[34]  Lina Yordanova,et al.  Gamification in education , 2014 .

[35]  Sara L. Beckman,et al.  Teaching Students Problem Framing Skills with a Storytelling Metaphor , 2012 .

[36]  Nuno Pombo,et al.  Software Engineering Education: Challenges and Perspectives , 2020, 2020 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON).

[37]  F. J. García-Peñalvo,et al.  Women and STEM disciplines in Latin America: The W-STEM European Project , 2019 .

[38]  Erkki Sutinen,et al.  Serious storytelling – a first definition and review , 2017, Multimedia Tools and Applications.

[39]  R. Davidhizar,et al.  Storytelling as a Teaching Technique , 2003, Nurse educator.

[40]  David J. Snowden,et al.  Story telling: an old skill in a new context , 1999 .