[Yr7-10it] Scratch, Gamemaker, VB.net, Python, PHP and MySQL - Programming for all levels

[Russell Edwards]

Thanks everyone for this interesting discussion I've only just got  
around to reading.

On 19/09/2007, at 8:37 AM, Kevork Krozian wrote:
>  Outcome for students: They found it a struggle. Only the top end  
> managed to survive due to a lack of time.

I think this reflects something that was said earlier:

> On 17/09/2007, at 9:23 PM, Costello, Rob R wrote:
>> I remember reading something David Perkins said - that in his
>> observations - circa 1985 - none of the budding student  
>> programmers he
>> observed had arrived at any competence without a huge personal
>> investment of time

This reflects my experience, too. At uni (comp sci hons degree) there  
was a real bimodal distribution of ability. There were those who  
pursued programming as a hobby, skipped lectures, whipped up the work  
in a fraction of the allocated time, and topped the class.  Then  
there was the rest, who weren't necessarily any less intelligent but  
simply hadn't spent all their free time for the last ten years  
teaching themselves programming. They all struggled quite severely.  
There was not much in the way of middle ground, students who were  
comfortably operating at the "good" or "very good" level.

The high-achieving group made up perhaps one quarter to one half of  
the honours year cohort, so I'd guess one fifth of 3rd year comp sci  
majors and perhaps one fifteenth of first year programming  
enrolments. Being perhaps a little cruel but pragmatic, most of the  
other students would never have reached a level of competence that  
would enable them to be effective professional programmers.    Moving  
to high school IT enrollments, in my school at least the fraction was  
probably zero-- the curriculum was so far beneath the computer geeks  
that none of them bothered to even do VCE IT.

Now, this was in the mid-90s. If anything, with year 12 retention  
rates and uni enrollment rates on the rise, the proportion of "not  
suitable for programming" students can only have risen in the last  
decade.

So, why bother teaching them programming?

  Well, certainly not because they are all potential professional  
programmers---far from it!

  I believe a *basic* (pre-VCE, GameMaker-level) of programming  
experience makes them better able to understand how software works.   
Also, learning programming at any level helps to develop generic,  
transferrable cognitive skills in much the same way as the  
mathematics most students learn but will never use once they leave  
school. (which, by the way, I think is much better than explicitly  
trying to teach conscious "thinking strategies".)

So I'd say it's still worth trying to teach them programming, but  
don't stress out about externalities : "what they need to know" to  
get a job, succeed at uni, whatever.  Just move them forward at a  
comfortable rate from whenever they're currently at... which brings  
us back to constructivism!

cheers

Russell Edwards
Whittlesea SC



Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.