Information Technology Reference
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As these activities illustrate, the teaching of computer science soft ideas, either in
the MTCS course, in the high school, or in the university, should be done in an open,
interactive, and collaborative learning environment. The activities should be open
and stimulate and support learners' understanding of computer science concepts in
general and computer science soft ideas in particular.
After the students work on these activities, a summary discussion can focus on
additional topics, such as:
• The prospective teachers' own understanding of computer science soft ideas:
What did they learn during the work on the activities? Did they improve their un-
derstanding of computer science soft ideas in general and of a specific computer
science soft idea in particular? If yes—how? Do they have questions about soft
ideas? If yes—what kind of questions? What is the source of these questions?
• The teaching of soft ideas in the high school: What is the uniqueness of teach-
ing soft ideas? Is the teaching of soft ideas different or similar to the teaching of
rigid computer science concepts? What challenges does the teaching of computer
science soft ideas raise? How would they incorporate the teaching of soft ideas
in their future teaching in the high school? Should a lesson be dedicated to soft
ideas or should soft ideas be mentioned only when other topics are learned? At
what stage is it appropriate to teach soft ideas to high school computer science
pupils? This discussion can also address possible difficulties that the students
anticipate and the difficulties that their high school computer science pupils will
face with respect to the understanding of computer science soft ideas.
Activities 16-17 are triggers that can be served as an introductory task for computer
science soft ideas. Since they are similar in some sense, there is no need to facilitate
both of them.
Activity 16: Types of Concepts, Class Discussion
The students are asked what computer science concepts they are familiar
with. While the students suggest these concepts, the instructor writes them
on the board in two sets: One set consists of concepts whose soft aspects are
more dominant; the other set includes concepts whose rigid aspects are more
apparent. One way to determine to which set a specific concept belongs, is
by checking how difficult it is either to define it formally or to present for it
an algorithm to apply. For example, according to this criterion, a loop, a tree,
and functional complexity would be classified as rigid concepts (a fact that
does not imply, though, that they do not have soft aspects), while the concepts
of algorithm, abstraction, and debugging would be classified as a soft idea.
When the specific classification is not evident at a glance, for example, with
respect to concepts, such as data structure or class inheritance, a third set can
be created. The students should not be told how the concepts they suggest are
grouped into the two (or three) sets.
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