Long-Term Development of Software Projects – Students' Self-appreciation and Expectations

• Published in: Teaching Fundamental Concepts of Informatics Vol. 5941; pp. 194 - 205
• Main Authors: Yehezkel, Cecile, Haberman, Bruria
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Springer Berlin / Heidelberg 2010; Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• ISBN: 9783642113758; 3642113753
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-11376-5_18

The "Computer Science, Academia and Industry" extracurricular program has been operating at the Davidson Institute of Science Education for the past few years. The program, designed especially for high-school students majoring in computer science (CS), aims to bridge the gap between schools and the "real world" of computing and provides students with the opportunity to meet with leading computing experts from academia and industry. The program includes a preliminary stage of enrichment meetings and an advanced stage in which students develop software projects. A long-term formative evaluation of the program has been conducted regarding students’ attitudes towards the "different-from-school" style of learning, and their performance in developing projects. This paper describes a specific study aimed at determining how students’ self-appreciation and their initial expectations affect their readiness and aspiration to complete a long-term comprehensive project.