Computer Science Soft Concepts and Soft Skills

Abstract

This chapter proposes how to address computer science soft concepts and skills in the MTCS course. These topics are especially important today as they are dominant in the teaching of computer science in schools and the academia, as well as influence software development processes in the industry. These facts require from computer science students and teachers, computer scientists, and software engineers to acquire, in addition to disciplinary and technical knowledge, additional skills: both social (such as teamwork and getting and giving feedback), cognitive (e.g., thinking in terms of different levels of abstraction), and organizational (e.g., familiarity with different kinds of organizations). This chapter is divided into two parts: computer science soft concepts (Sect. 5.2) and computer science soft skills (Sect. 5.3). For each topic, its meaning and its importance and relevance in the context of computer science education are explained, and then, activities which deal with the said topic are presented.