Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behavioralist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.
The Software Engineering course load focuses on constructivist principles. While all Engineering disciplines strive to have active learning in real or simulated scenarios, Software Engineering has a distinct domain advantage. For example, having a Civil Engineering student design and build a bridge is not feasible for your average semester; however, in Software Engineering, designing your own web application from the ground up can easily be achieved. In addition to the highly practicable nature of Software Engineering, every engineering student is required to get 16 months of job experience before graduating. Work experience means that every prospective engineer that graduates from the University of Victoria has had months where they have worked alongside industry professionals leading to an active construction of knowledge that may not have been able to be taught in a classroom.
I’m also a Software Engineering student, and I agree that our faculty applies the principles of Constructivism most predominantly! Many of our assignments involves hands-on projects and collaborative group work. We learn by actively engaging with programming languages, frameworks, and tools. We also construct own understanding through coding exercises, debugging, and working on software development projects.
I think that one might point out that these mental processing of new information also represent the principle of Cognitivism. I think that the current instruction model for SENG at UVIC would align well with both learning theories.
I think that when it comes to software engineering, it’s important to consider more than just constructivist approaches. A combination of different methods may be necessary to truly optimize the learning process. For example, cognitivism emphasizes the importance of understanding how human beings process information and make decisions. In software engineering, this means designing applications that are intuitive and easy to use. What do you think?