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It doesn't matter that the assignments were in Scheme. If students have extensive previous programming experience, they have had a chance to develop a mental m
by morgante 11y ago
It doesn't matter that the assignments were in Scheme.
If students have extensive previous programming experience, they have had a chance to develop a mental model of computing that complete beginners simply don't have. They know how to debug. There are broad skills which aren't specific to a language or even a paradigm.
Putting all students in CS 101 together makes about as much sense as including Cantonese speakers in an introductory Mandarin course.
- ultramancool 11y agoI think scheme provides enough of a shift that many of those mental models they had will break down. Look at how much effort and how many attempts it takes people to learn pure functional languages for the first time and it really shows. That said - they'll leave that course with vastly improved mental models while the other students will still only have a basic understanding.
- morgante 11y agoAbsolutely they'll have to adjust their mental models. Learning a functional language is definitely different than learning yet another imperative language. But it's still a far cry from knowing nothing about programming in the first place. It definitely took my less time to learn and understand my first functional language than it took for me to learn my first language.