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Fri, Nov 7, 10:30 - 10:55, Pueblo C Paper (refereed)

Recommended Citation: McMaster, K, B Rague, S Hadfield, and N Anderson. Three Software Development Gestalts. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2008, v 25 (Phoenix): §2333. ISSN: 1542-7382.

Three Software Development Gestalts

Refereed

13 pages

Kirby McMaster    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science
Weber State University    [u1] [u2]
Ogden, Utah, USA    [c1] [c2]

Brian Rague    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science
Weber State University    [u1] [u2]
Ogden, Utah, USA    [c1] [c2]

Steven Hadfield    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science
Air Force Academy    [u1] [u2]
USAFA, Colorado, USA    [c1] [c2]

Nicole Anderson    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science
Winona State University    [u1] [u2]
Winona, Minnesota, USA    [c1] [c2]

Learning is more effective if topics are presented within an overall mental framework, or gestalt. But which gestalts are suitable for software development courses? This paper attempts to characterize and measure three gestalts for software development—an object-oriented Programming gestalt, a Database gestalt, and a Software Engineering gestalt. Our methodology assumes that words used frequently in a book indicate the gestalt of the author. By comparing word frequencies in Programming, Database, and Software Engineering books, we developed three gestalt scales. Using these scales, we calculated gestalt scores for all sample books, and plotted the distributions of these scores. We also examined relationships between the gestalt scales. Our findings have relevance in designing ways to teach software development courses, and in helping instructors choose appropriate textbooks for those courses.

Keywords: gestalt, programming, OOP, database, software engineering, IS education

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