Laboratory Experiences in Software Engineering from a Constructivist Perspective

In this paper we give a new interpretation, from a constructivist perspective, of two recent laboratory experiences in the context of a Software Engineering course at the University of Bologna. The two experiences were quite different both in the tools and in the modalities that were used: in one case a software product line was developed by following the rules of a role- playing game; in the second case students had to develop four software products using a process model chosen among Waterfall, Spiral, and Extreme Programming. Despite these differences, both cases can provide some evidences of the validity of the constructivist approach to teaching. In fact, from the results obtained and from the perceived experience of students emerged clearly the fact that, in both cases, the students working autonomously, in small groups and with a limited presence of a teacher, were able to build their own model of knowledge which resulted to be correct, as proved also by the good quality of the artifacts produced.