From quibeldey@ti.et-inf.uni-siegen.de Thu Jul 17 09:28:22 1997 Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 14:49:13 +0200 From: Klaus Quibeldey-Cirkel To: manns@unca.edu Cc: h.c.sharp@open.ac.uk, Phil_McLaughlin@parcplace.com, maximo@info.unlp.edu.ar Subject: Contribution to the "Pedagogical Patterns Project" Resent-Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 14:49:13 +0200 Resent-From: Resent-To: manns@bulldog.unca.edu Dear Colleagues, I am very interested in your pedagogical patterns project. An academic and industry OO educator myself, I would like to contribute to your project. Attached you find a pattern which has proved successful in teaching the spectrum of the Object Paradigm. I appreciate any comment and kindly ask you to give the pattern a chance for being reviewed on your Web page. Best Regards, Yours Klaus Quibeldey-Cirkel --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pedagogical Pattern #? ETHOS (Version 1.0) Klaus Quibeldey-Cirkel University of Siegen Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science D-57068 Siegen Germany quibeldey@ti.et-inf.uni-siegen.de ETHOS is both an acronym for a structure of five different elements and a concise mnemonic aid. It represents a universal pattern for teaching the different facets of a wide ranging engineering subject. ETHOS reminds you that a solution to an engineer's problem commonly comprises Economic, Technical, Human, Organizational, and Social aspects. INTENT Structures a presentation, a lecture, or a manuscript as a whole. Helps to comprehend a manifold subject matter in its entirety. MOTIVATION You want to draft an introductory course about object-oriented software engineering, for example. The subject matter is to be taught in its whole spectrum avoiding pedantic and boring lectures. You choose aspects you want to elaborate upon for a longer period of time. In a way, you are looking for some pedagogical "spotlights" to focus the student's attention to the principal aspects of the teaching matter. Your motive can be outlined as follows: You want: - to give variety to your lectures; - to take account of all important aspects; - to follow a red thread where to line up your lectures supporting cohesive learning; - to widen the student's perspective to interdisciplinary aspects. APPLICABILITY The subject matter should be one of engineering, e.g. a method for analyzing, designing, and implementing large-scale systems. It is important that economic and technical aspects are present. Check if one or more of the following points apply to your problem: - the subject matter involves a "paradigm", i.e. (1) a "higher principle" or way of thinking, typical of a certain discipline, but which cannot be clearly formulated and which manifests itself by examples, and (2) a "disciplinary matrix" of opinions and values holding together a "scientific community" [Kuhn, 1970]); - the subject matter comprises many and diverse aspects that you intent to teach in more than five sessions; - you want to hold an introductory course, i.e. you don't intent to go into much details. The pattern also applies to structuring a textbook or manuscript about a wide ranging theme. STRUCTURE As an acronym, ETHOS is strictly sequential (thus a test whether all relevant aspects are taken into account); as a reading instruction, chapters structured in the ETHOS fashion can be read sporadically in any order. The pattern's basic structure follows its initials: E: economic, T: technical, H: human, O: organizational, and S: social aspects. If several topics apply to the same aspect, subdivide the structure's individual elements by indexing, e.g. T1, T2 ,..., Tn. CONSEQUENCES - ETHOS allows kaleidosopical lectures, i.e. being arranged in a colourful succession, each one a self-contained unit within a wide spectrum; - ETHOS favours breadth before depth, general knowledge before specialized knowledge; - it supports cohesive learning; - it permits continuous learning: even if some lectures have been missed, the student can follow the others, thus, ETHOS helps to encapsulate a lecture as a learning unit; - with the manuscript being similarly structured, the congruence between lecture and manuscript will be hold, i.e. arbitrary cuts and context switches can be avoided; - ETHOS provides a general framework where new topics (current developments, etc.) can easily be integrated without changing the lecture's basic structure; - ETHOS presupposes a deep analysis of both the subject matter and its didactic; the importance of and relationship between individual ETHOS aspects have to be made explicit. IMPLEMENTATION Integrate the ETHOS aspects into the general structure of your course, don't let them stand for their own. For a concrete example, topics and contents of a course on object-oriented systems design are given: Topics of lectures: 1. Overview: ECBS "Engineering of Computer-Based Systems" 2. Paradigms of Design in Computer Science 3. Complexity of Designing 4. Mastering Design Complexity 5. E: Industrialized Software 6. T1: OOx: Abstracting - Partitioning - Communicating 7. T2: OOAD: Foundations of Analysis and Design Methods 8. T3: OOP: Defining and Categorizing Object-Oriented Programming Languages 9. H1: Cognitive Aspects: Designing as Human Problem Solving 10. H2: On the Tripartition of an Object: Structure - Behaviour - Constraints 11. O: Management Aspects: Technology Transfer and Project Organization 12. S: A Science of Design 13. Looking Back: FAQ and course evaluation Contents of manuscript: 1 Paradigm Shifts in Computer Science Paradigm Shifts in the Large: Kuhn's Thesis. Paradigm Shifts in the Small: A Time without a Method, The Art of Programming vs. Software Engineering, The Human Factor, SA/SD vs. OOx. Object-Oriented World Models: Executable Models, Scenario of Object-Oriented Designing. 2 The Problem: Mastering Design Complexity "No Silver Bullet": The Descriptive Nature of Complexity, Complexity and its Dimensions, Design Complexity. "Hopes for the Silver": The Magical Number Seven, The Architecture of Complexity, Divide and Conquer. ETHOS Aspects of the Object Paradigm 3 ETHOS: E like Economic On the Way to Industrialized Software, The Principle of Locality, Software Reuse, Standard Class Libraries. Competitive Pressure: Productive Software Development, Software Quality. 4 ETHOS: T like Technical Object-Oriented Concepts: Abstracting, Partitioning, Communicating. Object-Oriented Applications: Analysis and Design, Programming Languages. 5 ETHOS: H like Human On the Psychology of Object-Oriented Concepts: Designing as Human Problem Solving, Cognitive Structures, Scheme and Correction, The Contribution of the Object Paradigm. On the Philosophy of Object-Oriented Concepts: The World of Ontology, An Ontological Object Model. 6 ETHOS: O like Organizational Technology Transfer: Questions about the Technology, Questions about the Interface between Client and Designer, Questions about the Design Process, Questions about Project Control, Questions about Staff Management. Aspects of Management: Homomorphism between Process and Product, Lean Management, Object Management. 7 ETHOS: S like Social "The Science of Design": Creating the Artificial, Curriculum of a Science of Design, The Contribution of the Object Paradigm. Architectural Designing: Ideals of a Generalized Discipline of Design, Good Designing from an Architectural Perspective, The Contribution of The Object Paradigm. An Ontology of Design: Deep Structure: States - Events - Laws, Good Designing from an Ontological Perspective, The Contribution of the Object Paradigm. A Excursions: Imagery, Classification, Inheritance vs. Encapsulation, "The Treaty of Orlando", The Terminology of the Object Management Group. B The Object-Oriented Method by Example: Analysis, Design, Programming. C Tables: Literature, Persons, Glossary, Abbreviations, Index. EXAMPLE INSTANCES OF THIS PATTERN At the University of Siegen the ETHOS pattern has been applied to a half-year lecture on "Object-Oriented Systems Design" annually since 1994: http://www.ti.et-inf.uni-siegen.de/courses/oos/oos.html The manuscript of the lecture follows the same pattern [Quibeldey-Cirkel, 1994]: http://www.Teubner.DE/cgi-bin/teubner-anzeige.sh?buch_no=918 RELATED PATTERNS In principle, any instance of the Alexanderian pattern form, i.e. Problem - Context - Forces - Solution, is a likely candidate for structuring a course or manuscript. Experiences of applying the pattern form explicitly are yet to be published. RESOURCES NEEDED None. REFERENCES [Kuhn, 1970] Kuhn, Thomas S.: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago 1970. [Quibeldey-Cirkel, 1994] Quibeldey-Cirkel, Klaus: The Object Paradigm in Computer Science (in German). Teubner-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994.