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Mining Student Specifications from Test Suites to Diagnose Misconceptions in Software Design Assignments

Sabbir Hosen Mamun†, Marcus E. Hoffmann, Yuki Tanaka† Corresponding author

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 1-34 · ACMQ1, IF 5.1, Scopus

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Abstract

Student-written tests reveal how learners understand a required software design, but instructors rarely have time to inspect those tests manually. This article presents a specification-mining pipeline that clusters assertions, extracts behavioural expectations, and compares them against instructor reference models. In a dataset of 2,914 project repositories, mined specifications identified missing boundary cases and incorrect object responsibilities earlier than implementation-only analysis.

Cite this work

@article{Mamun2025Mining,
  title = {Mining Student Specifications from Test Suites to Diagnose Misconceptions in Software Design Assignments},
  author = {Sabbir Hosen Mamun and Marcus E. Hoffmann and Yuki Tanaka},
  year = {2025},
  journal = {ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology},
  volume = {34},
  number = {6},
  pages = {1-34},
  publisher = {ACM},
  abstract = {Student-written tests reveal how learners understand a required software design, but instructors rarely have time to inspect those tests manually. This article presents a specification-mining pipeline that clusters assertions, extracts behavioural expectations, and compares them against instructor reference models. In a dataset of 2,914 project repositories, mined specifications identified missing boundary cases and incorrect object responsibilities earlier than implementation-only analysis.},
}