Little is known about the requirements of a comprehensibly written paragraph. This makes it difficult for Dutch secondary school teachers to teach their pupils how to write a paragraph. This... Show moreLittle is known about the requirements of a comprehensibly written paragraph. This makes it difficult for Dutch secondary school teachers to teach their pupils how to write a paragraph. This dissertation presents a rationale that shows which aspects of language are important when writing paragraphs. It is a didactic design study in which declarative knowledge, skills and self-efficacy beliefs were brought together in toolboxes. An important implication of this study is that the paragraph can play a role in the teaching of formulation skills in secondary education. Show less
The learning of software design is known to be a difficult and challenging task for students. This dissertation studies different didactic approaches for learning software design to improve the way... Show moreThe learning of software design is known to be a difficult and challenging task for students. This dissertation studies different didactic approaches for learning software design to improve the way we teach students software design. The research in the dissertation questions whether we can assess software design skills, what guidance is needed for the improvement of students’ understanding of software design and how to motivate and engage students for learning software design. The research explores the following: an instrument for measuring software design skills based on design principles, the gamification of learning software design, revealing students’ software design strategies, the use of peer-reflection for uncovering the difficulties students have during software design tasks, the use of teaching assistants as bridge between the lecturer and the students, the automation of grading software designs with machine learning, guiding feedback by a pedagogical agent and a workshop for engaging students into the process of software development. The research contributes to the future education of software design. Show less