Teaching contract programming concepts to future software engineers

Current research in software engineering at Karlstad University is concentrated on non-formal software design methods with a focus on semantics. One goal is to produce methods, which may be applied in both industry and academia. In concrete terms, ideas from contract programming, including preand postconditions have been introduced into the first year curriculum. This paper presents results taken from three surveys of the same group of first-year students during their second semester, in an attempt to ascertain how well the students have internalised these and other programming concepts. The results show that the majority of the students are aware of the concepts but are still at various stages of understanding. A good understanding of terminology emerges as one key area of focus for future courses. The results are a reasonable reflection of reality, given the limited time in which the students are expected to absorb these ideas, and provide feedback for further integration and development of the related programming courses.