The challenge of problem-based learning

SUMMARY Although the majority of software testing in industry is conducted at the system level, most formal research has focused on the unit level. As a result, most system-level testing techniques are only described informally. This paper presents formal testing criteria for system level testing that are based on formal specifications of the software. Software testing can only be formalized and quantified when a solid basis for test generation can be defined. Formal specifications represent a significant opportunity for testing because they precisely describe what functions the software is supposed to provide in a form that can be automatically manipulated. This paper presents general criteria for generating test inputs from state-based specifications. The criteria include techniques for generating tests at several levels of abstraction for specifications (transition predicates, transitions, pairs of transitions and sequences of transitions). These techniques provide coverage criteria that are based on the specifications and are made up of several parts, including test prefixes that contain inputs necessary to put the software into the appropriate state for the test values. The test generation process includes several steps for transforming specifications to tests. These criteria have been applied to a case study to compare their ability to detect seeded faults. Copyright c � 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Generating test data from state-based specifications

Mastery of basic syntactic and logical constructs is an essential part of learning to program. Unfortunately, practice exercises for programming basics can be very tedious, making it difficult to motivate students. In this paper we describe Parson's Programming Puzzles, an automated, interactive tool that provides practice with basic programming principles in an entertaining puzzle-like format. Careful design of the items in the puzzles allows the tutor to highlight particular topics and common programming errors. Since each puzzle solution is a complete sample of well-written code, use of the tool exposes students to good programming practice. This paper discusses the motivation of Parson's Programming Puzzles, and gives several examples. We describe the web-based authoring tool used to build the puzzles, and present our plans for future development.

Parson's programming puzzles: a fun and effective learning tool for first programming courses

Zb 2005: Formal Specification and Development in Z and B

Computer Science (CS) is a relatively new disciple and how best to introduce it to new students remains an open question. Likewise, the identification of appropriate instructional strategies for the diverse topics that constitute the average curriculum remains open to debate. One approach considered by a number of practitioners in CS education involves Problem-Based Learning (PBL), a radical departure from the conventional lecturing format. PBL has been adopted in other domains with success, but whether these positive experiences will be replicated in CS remains to be seen. In this article, a systematic review of PBL initiatives in undergraduate and postgraduate CS is presented from a Computing Education Research (CER) perspective. This includes analyses of a range of practical didactic issues, including the degree to which PBL has been systematically evaluated, practical problem description in the literature, as well as a survey of topics for which a PBL approach has been adopted.

/pdf/practical-problem-based-learning-in-computing-education-37olpmcei5.pdf

Practical Problem-Based Learning in Computing Education

Over the years there has been an ongoing debate about which computer language to adopt for a first programming subject. Although some may not agree, the current consensus is that the object-oriented languages are winning the argument, and Java has increasingly become the language of choice for teaching beginners. But choosing the language is only the first step in designing a first programming subject. The adoption of an object-oriented language such as Java offers an opportunity to completely rethink our approach to teaching first-year programming, an opportunity that should not be missed. In this paper we identify what we see as the non language-specific core issues, and discuss how we approached these issues when designing and teaching a programming subject for beginners.

Teaching programming to beginners - choosing the language is just the first step

This paper describes a method for specification-based class testing that incorporates test case generation, execution, and evaluation based on formal specifications. This work builds on previous achievements in the areas of specification-based testing and class testing by integrating the two within a single framework, The initial step of the method is to generate test templates for individual operations from a specification written in the Object-Z specification language, These test templates are combined to produce a finite state machine for the class that is used as the basis for test case execution using the ClassBench test execution framework. An oracle derived from the Object-Z specification is used to evaluate the outputs. The method is explained using a simple example and its application to a more substantial case study is also discussed Copyright (C) 2000 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.

From Object-Z specifications to ClassBench test suites

Previous work on generating state machines for the purpose of class testing has not been formally based. There has also been work on deriving state machines from formal specifications for testing non-object-oriented software. We build on this work by presenting a method for deriving a state machine for testing purposes from a formal specification of the class under test. We also show how the resulting state machine can be used as the basis for a test suite developed and executed using an existing framework for class testing. To derive the state machine, we identify the states and possible interactions of the operations of the class under test. The Test Template Framework is used to formally derive the states from the Object-Z specification of the class under test. The transitions of the finite state machine are calculated from the derived states and the class's operations. The formally derived finite state machine is transformed to a ClassBench testgraph, which is used as input to the ClassBench framework to test a C++ implementation of the class. The method is illustrated using a simple bounded queue example.

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:286762/UQ286762_fulltext.pdf

Formal Derivation of Finite State Machines for Class Testing

We are extending a framework for specification-based testing, the Test Template Framework, to include object-oriented features such as those provided in Object-Z. We report on our work extending the framework to include inheritance. In testing a subclass, the testing information for the parent class is inherited and thus reused. We have identified conditions under which testing information can be inherited without change, when it is inherited with modifications and when it must be derived from scratch. We illustrate the technique with an example based on the Eiffel Queue classes.

Extending test templates with inheritance

This paper describes the translation of Object-Z specifications of container classes to C++ test oracle classes. It presents a three-stage translation process and describes how the derived test oracles are integrated into the ClassBench testing framework. The method caters for object-oriented features such as inheritance and aggregation. Translation issues and the limitations of the method are discussed. Our approach is illustrated with an example based on an integer set class.

Translating Object-Z specifications to object-oriented test oracles

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