Cooperative Thinking: analyzing a new framework for software engineering education

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) and Agile Values (AV) focus respectively on the individual capability to think algorithmically, and on the principles of collaborative software development. Although these two dimensions of software engineering education complement each other, very few studies explored their interaction. In this paper we use an exploratory Structural Equation Modeling technique to introduce and analyze Cooperative Thinking (CooT), a model of team-based computational problem solving. We ground our model on the existing literature and validate it through Partial Least Square modeling. Cooperative Thinking is new competence which aim is to support cooperative problem solving of technical contents suitable to deal with complex software engineering problems. This article suggests to tackle the CooT construct as an education goal, to train students of software development to improve both their individual and teaming performances.