Models are expanding their use for many different purposes in the field of software engineering and, due to their importance, universities have started incorporating modeling courses into their programs. Being a relatively new discipline, teaching modeling concepts brings in new challenges. Our contribution in this paper is threefold. First, we…

Teaching modeling in computer science is complicated. Many factors contribute, and are related in diverse ways. We regard some combinations as more successful than others, but we also value diversity, and we struggle to elucidate the relationships and our value structure. Similar remarks apply to the study of biological ecosystems. This…

This article reminds readers of the benefits that use cases bring to the software development process. Use cases, as featured in the UML (Unified Modeling Language), are contrasted with the much terser "user stories" favoured by agile methods. With their normal and alternative flows, and extending and included behaviours, use cases…

This article presents the results of observations and analyses of students' learning model-driven system development from two related courses taught at a university in Norway and at a university in the United States in 2015, and consequently, in an updated version in 2016. The motivation of this article is to understand and analyse how effective…

Background and Context: Vygotsky's sociocultural theory emphasises the importance of language, mediation, and the transfer of skills and knowledge from the social into the cognitive plane. This perspective has influenced the development of PRIMM (Predict, Run, Investigate, Modify, Make), a structured approach to teaching programming. Objective:…

The software industry needs well-trained software designers and one important aspect of software design is the ability to model software designs visually and understand what visual models represent. However, previous research indicates that software design is a difficult task to many students. This article reports empirical findings from a…

This article describes how research methodologies were modified and integrated during the doctoral research conducted by the first author under the supervision of the second author. The research project concerned trying to understand why teachers do or don't use "Jeliot", a program animation system designed to facilitate teaching and learning of…

Recursion is a central concept in computer science, yet it is difficult for beginners to comprehend. Israeli high-school students learn recursion in the framework of a special modular program in computer science (Gal-Ezer & Harel, 1999). Some of them are introduced to the concept of recursion in two different paradigms: the procedural…