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Adapting to Different Types of Target Audience in Teaching Formal Methods

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Formal Methods – Fun for Everybody (FMFun 2019)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1301))

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Abstract

Formal methods can be considered as the area of computer science that most effectively bridges the gap between mathematics and computer science. They are potentially a great educational tool for fostering mathematical reasoning skills and problem-solving abilities in a very wide audience of potential learners from university, industry, school and research.

Unfortunately, this great potential is not exploited in reality. Formal methods are taught only in a limited number of computer science university programmes, mainly at postgraduate level, and are usually presented as such a difficult topic that university students keep away from them and the industry, in general, does not consider them as a worthy research and development investment. Even worse, most of the technicians (electrical or machine engineering) who design and build safety critical systems never had a course in formal methods during their studies.

In this paper we draw upon our experience in teaching formal methods to the heterogeneous audience of potential learners. We report on how teaching methods and materials must be adapted to the specific type of target audience to effectively produce learning outcomes. We observe that motivation, fun and practice are essential dimensions of such an adaptive approach.

Work partly funded by Seed Funding Grant, Project SFG 1447 “Formal Analysis and Verification of Accidents”, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

    Antonio Cerone

  2. Department of Computer Science, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland

    Karl Reiner Lermer

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  1. Antonio Cerone
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  2. Karl Reiner Lermer
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Correspondence to Antonio Cerone .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

    Antonio Cerone

  2. Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Markus Roggenbach

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Cerone, A., Lermer, K.R. (2021). Adapting to Different Types of Target Audience in Teaching Formal Methods. In: Cerone, A., Roggenbach, M. (eds) Formal Methods – Fun for Everybody. FMFun 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1301. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71374-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71374-4_5

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