Teaching computer science soft skills as soft concepts
Orit Hazzan, Gadi Har-Shai · 2013
In this paper, we describe a course on computer science and software engineering soft skills offered by the Department of Computer Science (CS) at the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology. The course was developed in response to a call by the Israeli hi-tech industry to equip the Technion's CS graduates with such skills. This request actually reflects the industry's recognition of the importance of soft skills in software development processes, not only on the managerial level, but also among software team members. The paper describes the course and aims to deliver the message that like soft concepts of computer science (e.g., abstraction and readability), which cannot be imparted rigidly using formal definitions, soft skills too cannot be studied and taught formally and, rather, should be learned and grasped gradually over a certain period of time, based on students' engagement, active learning, and reflection. Furthermore, students must accept such soft skills as concepts that can neither be defined formally nor evaluated adequately.