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(Blumenfeld et al.
1991
). In general, Waks (
1997
) asserts that the focus of the
teacher's role must be modified in PBL environments from “teaching” activities to
“learning” activities, by establishing conditions that enhance learners' curiosity and
motivation.
One example of PBL in computer science education is examined in Kay et
al.'s (
2000
) research, which explored different teaching approaches for the Intro-
duction to Computer Science course taught according to the object-oriented ap-
proach. PBL was found to be the most suitable approach, since it provides learners
with the opportunity to deal with real problem-solving situations and to acquire
problem-solving skills and practices. In the same spirit, Johnson (
1997
) claims that
since instructors must teach in a way that develops learners' problem-solving expe-
riences for the benefit of their future work environment, their teaching must guide
learners to develop conceptual thinking, criticism, and creativity.
Software development projects conducted within high school computer science
classes offer a prime example of a PBL environment. Similar to other PBL situ-
ations, the role of the computer science teacher in the development process of a
software project is different than his or her role when teaching in the class. In addi-
tion to the teaching of the intended programming paradigm, programming language
and related computer science concepts, computer science teachers are required to
mentor the project development process from the early stages of subject selection to
the final stages of testing and verification, to evaluate the learners' learning process
and, at the end, to evaluate the developed projects. Fincher and Petre (
1998
) claim
that such a process is a long and complex problem-solving process by itself since it
requires computer science teachers to deal with multiple problems simultaneously
and to exhibit supervision, management skills of projects of different scales, flex-
ibility, and creative thinking.
This complexity of the teacher's role in mentoring PBL in general and in the
context of computer science education in particular, stresses the importance of
addressing the mentoring process of software projects in the high school in the
MTCS course. Activities 59 and 60 introduce to the students in the MTCS course
the potential, as well as the challenges, of mentoring software project development
in the high school, and elevate their thinking about how to manage this process in
their future classes. Additional activities related to project evaluation are presented
in Chap. 10.
Since the mentoring process of software project is not a simple pedagogical task,
it is recommended to address this topic in a relatively advanced stage of the MTCS
course, after the students have already gained some sense of the essence and spirit
of computer science teaching.
Activity 59: Analysis of Mentoring Software Project Development Situations
• Stage A: Watch a video clip
The following trigger aims to let the students experience, as much as pos-
sible, situations they may encounter when guiding pupils in the devel-
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