The work-reflection-learning cycle - Department of Computer and ...

Software Engineering student projects: state-of-the-art
learning practice, should change in a way enabling more competent participation in
working life practices. In other words, the educational practice should mainly prepare
the learner for future participation in work life. At the same time, PBL is meant to
provide work practice, the goals of which are intrinsic to participation (e.g. being a
practitioner, proving oneself as a competent practitioner), solving the task being the
main proof of successful participation, and knowledge and competence being viewed as
situated doing. Dohn (2009) argues that PBL is one of the pedagogical approaches that
succeed in bridging the educational and practice logics by challenging the problem from
within, “bringing authentic working life problems into schools settings as authentic
problems (not just as illustrative examples) and/or by organizing educational tasks
within working life settings.” (p.354).
To provide support for PBL, it is useful to know how the students perceive the tension
between education and work, and, in the same vein, what are their objectives for project
participation. For instance, Berglund and Eckerdal (2006) found in a case study that
project students strive from three different motives: academic achievement, project and
team working capacity (including becoming a better professional), and social
competence. Students‟ priorities among various objectives, and how they see certain
tasks and aspects of project work as related to these objectives, have an impact on their
work and learning, and ultimately on what are the most useful ways of supporting work
and learning in the projects.
Also, students‟ understanding of the practices and objectives of the various CoPs
involved (e.g. the university, the project team, the customer organization, the work
profession) impacts on their collaboration with project stakeholders. Due to the
importance and challenges of stakeholder collaboration in Software Engineering, it is
acknowledged as vital to have SE project students learn to communicate with project
stakeholders (McMillan 1999; Poole 2003).
In this thesis, SE project students‟ objectives for project participation and understanding
of the objectives of other stakeholders (e.g. the university, the customer organization)
are explored in research paper P1. Collaboration between project teams and
stakeholders is addressed in the papers P2 and P3: P2 elaborating on a successful case
of project-critical and tool-mediated collaboration, and P3 discussing an unsuccessful
one.
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