TEL environment for teaching and learning of expansionist and reductionist thinking skills in software design problem solving.

• Consider the following software design problem- “Design a software system for a bank which will allow customers to check their account details and balance online.”
• In the above problem, both the problem space and solution space are not well-defined. In problem space; the data-items and operations to be performed are to be formulated and in solution space; the appropriate data structure and algorithm has to be designed.
• Research studies have shown Fathom’s effectiveness in learning the expansionist skills in problem representation: understanding the problem from multiple perspectives and reductionist skill of identifying the data-items and operations based on the goal. Expansionist skill in solution design: generate alternative solutions and reductionist skill: identify the criteria to evaluate and select appropriate solutions and justify.