Complete thesis - Murdoch University

• they expect a fundamentally competitive class environment to exist (is my solutionbetter than yours)• they expect their ‘wild ideas’ to be laughed at and ultimately rejected, and thereforeare inhibited in expressing them.In summary they see software development as fundamentally scientific (where following adefined process will lead to a quality product (Pfleeger, 1999)) and well suited to their nature.This perspective is not unexpected – as Baxter-Magnola (2001) and Perry (1988) suggest,students at low intellectual (or epistemological) stages of development either believe thatevery intellectual and moral question has one correct answer and their (competent) teachersknow what it is or are transitioning to believing that some knowledge is certain, and thatmaking judgements following logical procedures prescribed by authority deserves full credit.Challenges to their belief systems within the units they take and interactions with peersare necessary for them to gradually come to believe in the validity of multiple viewpoints.However, discussions during the class suggested these perceptions were very little changedunder the Apprenticeship model for RE.It could be argued that the issues identified reveal the inappropriateness of the learningsituation for the material to be learnt. Yet the literature of the discipline (and of educationin the discipline) suggest otherwise (see Chapter 2 for a discussion of these).Alternatively, it could be argued that the learning model was inappropriate for the characteristicsof the student cohort. This is (negatively) supported by the literature – that traditionalteaching, at least in an engineering context, fails to address the needs of most students, evenif it is the dominant approach (and the one, therefore with which most students are familiar)(see for example the discussion in Felder and Brent (2005), which addresses extensivelystudent diversity in learning).Success of the learning modelThroughout the semester, the principles of the Cognitive Apprenticeship described in Collinset al (1991) were kept in mind, and applied as seemed valid. So, for example, the secondcycle of the curriculum focussed more on heuristic and control strategies than basic domainknowledge – so not just how to construct a Class diagram, but what techniques make iteasier to do so ‘elegantly’, what different approaches exist for achieving the same task. Thesocial characteristics (Sociology) were also reasonably well aligned. The tasks were realistic,situated and required co operation. Intrinsic motivation was more difficult to achieve –many students were motivated to just pass the unit. The portfolio mark, as an indicator of264