Journal of Engineering Education Transformations

Abstract

Problem Based Learning and Computational Thinking together have been applied in several studies, proven to be effective to bring out the best of problem solving. While both of them share several common features, computational thinking is a way of solving problems in problem based learning. One of the major components that direct a student towards critical thinking and self-directed learning are reflections. The components of computational thinking can be used to intervene reflections. This paper proposes to use decomposition for reflections. A multi method study was conducted on 37 students who were asked to write reflections for software architectural problems. The data was qualitatively analyzed using structural, in vivo and focused coding. Further, we used ttest to quantitatively analyze the data after receiving evaluation parameters from the qualitative analysis. The results are presented in this paper along with the themes generated and how reflections are effective when decomposition is explicitly stated. The work positively contributes towards design of effective PBL reflections.

Keywords—Computational Thinking; Decomposition; Problem Based learning; Reflections.