The role of modelling skills in learning formal specification

The paper describes the results of a qualitative study into the ways in which students learning formal specification understand the concepts of propositional and predicate logic. The rationale for choice of certain tasks is given, and the learning demands made by these are analysed in terms of the understanding of logic and of the process of modelling itself. The results reveal that many students were found to have as much difficulty with aspects of modelling as with logic, and the paper concludes by suggesting that these may have a central role to play in the development of students’ understanding of logic.