# More Programming Than Programming: Teaching Formal Methods in a Software Engineering Programme

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.00787 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00787/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 May 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [AutoICE: Automatically Synthesizing Verifiable C Code via LLM-driven Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07501/) (2025)
- [From Natural Language to Verified Code: Toward AI Assisted Problem-to-Code Generation with Dafny-Based Formal Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.22601/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Formal methods for software correctness are critical to the future of software engineering - and so must be an essential part of software engineering education. Unfortunately, formal methods are often resisted by students due to perceived difficulty, mathematicity, and practical irrelevance. We redeveloped our software correctness course by taking a programming intensive approach, using the solver-aided language Dafny to provide instant formative feedback via automated assessment. Our redeveloped course increased student retention and resulted in the best evaluation for the course for at least ten years.