Overview of the Discipline of Computer Science - Guide to Teaching Computer Science: An Activity-Based Approach - page 42

− Bring an example for a task that is suitable to be solved by the said
paradigm.
− Explain why the task is suitable to be solved by the said paradigm.
− Solve the task with the said programming paradigm.
• Stage B: Reviewing the groups' work
Each group presents its tasks and explains its considerations in the design
process of the tasks for each paradigm. For each presented task, the other
class members are asked to express their opinion whether or not the task
fulfills the requirements, that is, whether the task fits to be solved by the
proposed paradigm.
For selected tasks, the instructor asks whether it can be naturally solved by
another programming paradigm than the one proposed by the team which
presented it. If it is, the students can be asked to explain why and to solve
it in the other paradigm; if it is not—the instructor can ask what changes
should be made in the question formulation to make it naturally solvable
also by applying another paradigm. The changes suggested by the students
can then be analyzed and conclusions with respect to the kind of changes
can be fostered.
• Stage C: Class discussion

The summary should address the different considerations addressed by the
groups while designing questions for different programming paradigms. It
is relevant to raise the question whether similar considerations were used
for all paradigms. Such a discussion, once again, enables to highlight first,
the different perspectives that different programming paradigms exhibit in
problem-solving situations and second, the variety of the levels of abstrac-
tion on which the topic of programming paradigms can be thought of.

3.7 Computer Science Soft Ideas

In this section, we first explain the essence of computer science soft ideas
(Sect. 3.7.1) and then address its position in the MTCS course (Sect. 3.7.2).

3.7.1 What Are Computer Science Soft Ideas?

This section focuses on the teaching of computer science soft ideas. 12 According
to Hazzan ( 2008 ), a soft idea is a concept that can be neither rigidly nor formally
defined, nor is it possible to guide students as to its precise application. Indeed, how
can stepwise refinement be presented formally? How can one outline a list of “how
to” actions for seeking a good algorithm? How can the move between different

12 Based on Hazzan ( 2008 ).