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Building a Bridge between the Two Schools: Realizing a Practical Path to Include Literacy-based Skills within the STEM Curricula

Jorge Torres Gómez, Erika Gericke, Anton Rassõlkin, Mikołaj Leszczuk, Alexandru Iosup, Marcin Niemiec, Carmen Peláez-Moreno

TL;DR

The paper addresses the gap between soft skills and technical CS education at technical universities. It proposes a step-by-step methodology to connect core technical concepts with fine arts practices such as music, video production, gaming, and Oxford-style debates. Through classroom implementations across art-literacy integration, debates, and gamification, it reports improvements in learning outcomes and student engagement using both quantitative and qualitative measures. It also discusses open issues—teacher engagement, female participation, scalability, and evaluation design—arguing for a practical, adaptable framework to bridge historically separate educational cultures.

Abstract

Developing students as well-rounded professionals is increasingly important for our modern society. Although there is a great consensus that technical and professional ("soft") skills should be developed and intertwined in the core of computer science subjects, there are still few examples of alike teaching methodologies at technical schools. This contribution investigates the integration of technical and professional skills while teaching specialized curricula in computer science. We propose a broadly applicable, step-by-step methodology that connects core technical concepts (e.g., information entropy, network security) with fine arts practices such as music, video production, gaming, and performing arts (e.g., Oxford-style debates). The methodology was applied in several computer science courses at technical universities, where quantitative and qualitative assessments, including student questionnaires and exam scores, showed improved learning outcomes and increased student engagement compared to traditional methods. The results indicate that this art-based integration can effectively bridge the historical divide between the two schools of thought, offering a practical direction for educators. Within this context, we also identify open issues that will guide future research on topics such as instructor engagement, female motivation in technical subjects, and scalability of these approaches.

Building a Bridge between the Two Schools: Realizing a Practical Path to Include Literacy-based Skills within the STEM Curricula

TL;DR

The paper addresses the gap between soft skills and technical CS education at technical universities. It proposes a step-by-step methodology to connect core technical concepts with fine arts practices such as music, video production, gaming, and Oxford-style debates. Through classroom implementations across art-literacy integration, debates, and gamification, it reports improvements in learning outcomes and student engagement using both quantitative and qualitative measures. It also discusses open issues—teacher engagement, female participation, scalability, and evaluation design—arguing for a practical, adaptable framework to bridge historically separate educational cultures.

Abstract

Developing students as well-rounded professionals is increasingly important for our modern society. Although there is a great consensus that technical and professional ("soft") skills should be developed and intertwined in the core of computer science subjects, there are still few examples of alike teaching methodologies at technical schools. This contribution investigates the integration of technical and professional skills while teaching specialized curricula in computer science. We propose a broadly applicable, step-by-step methodology that connects core technical concepts (e.g., information entropy, network security) with fine arts practices such as music, video production, gaming, and performing arts (e.g., Oxford-style debates). The methodology was applied in several computer science courses at technical universities, where quantitative and qualitative assessments, including student questionnaires and exam scores, showed improved learning outcomes and increased student engagement compared to traditional methods. The results indicate that this art-based integration can effectively bridge the historical divide between the two schools of thought, offering a practical direction for educators. Within this context, we also identify open issues that will guide future research on topics such as instructor engagement, female motivation in technical subjects, and scalability of these approaches.
Paper Structure (12 sections, 9 figures)

This paper contains 12 sections, 9 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Technical Box: The Developing State of Teaching Professional Skills
  3. Bridging the Two Schools
  4. Direct Experiences in the Classroom
  5. Intertwining Art and Literacy with Communication Theory
  6. Assessing the practice of arts
  7. Oxford-Style: Performing debates in classrooms
  8. Assessing the Oxford-style from students
  9. Gamification
  10. Assessing Gamification in Classrooms
  11. Steps Forward
  12. Conclusion

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: Bridging the two schools towards reinforcing professional skills at technical subjects.
  • Figure 2: A step-by-step methodology to bridge the two schools.
  • Figure 3: Illustrative example of painters and mixed styles. a) Picasso, “The Blue Cup”, 1902. b) Pollock, “Number 31”, 1950. c) The mixed style of Pollock and Picasso torres-gomez2021teaching.
  • Figure 4: Measuring entropy in two video sequences from "500 Years of Women in Western Art" by Philip Scott Johnson torres-gomez2020teaching.
  • Figure 5: Comparative results for the quantitative questionnaire.
  • ...and 4 more figures