Comparing Top-Down with Bottom-Up Approaches: Teaching Data Modeling

Information Systems and Computing Academic Professionals. Box 488, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://isedj.org

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11

Teaching Methods; Database Design; Intermode Differences; Instructional Effectiveness; Performance Based Assessment; Student Experience; Hypothesis Testing; Undergraduate Students; Comparative Analysis; Error Patterns; Class Activities; Concept Teaching; Qualitative Research; Teaching Models; Achievement Gains; Statistical Analysis

1545-679X

Conceptual database design is a difficult task for novice database designers, such as students, and is also therefore particularly challenging for database educators to teach. In the teaching of database design, two general approaches are frequently emphasized: top-down and bottom-up. In this paper, we present an empirical comparison of students' performance between these two approaches in a conceptual data modeling exercise. Our results indicate that, while prior database education had a significant effect on the quality of design performance, the chosen approach did not. The findings suggest that database educators should integrate both top-down and bottom-up approaches in database design showing the differences and similarities between the two approaches to improve students' learning of data modeling.

As Provided

12

2017

EJ1145017