Expertise and Instruction in Software Development

Publisher Summary This chapter surveys the research of the late 1980s and early 1990s on the nature of software development expertise and approaches to teaching software development skills. This literature shows that several complementary developments address the limitations of the early work. The chapter reviews how a cognitive science perspective was employed to develop a theoretical framework for interpreting and refining the empirical studies. Instead of focusing on the efficacy of particular features, research began to characterize the knowledge and skill of programmers and how that knowledge and skill is acquired and developed. Further, the chapter reviews how studies of software expertise have raised the level of analysis from individual lines of code to the design of software systems and to the teamwork involved in such activities. Finally, the chapter examines research and development of programming and design instruction that incorporates these new perspectives on software development expertise.

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