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I'm a university professor in CS. I don't teach people how to problem-solve, and I have never known what other people are talking about when they claim they tea
by acbart 7y ago
I'm a university professor in CS. I don't teach people how to problem-solve, and I have never known what other people are talking about when they claim they teach that in their courses. I teach fundamental skills, and then I put my students in front of lots of problems. In an ideal world, they transfer that experience to new problems. My most important role is providing the motivation and structure to go tackle assignments that might be similar to the ones they tackle later on in their careers. I really like Amy Ko's take on the process: https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/the-transfer-problem-in-computing-education-501d4f129897 https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/the-transfer-problem-in...
All of that pales to the real process going on: good students were matriculated into my program, and I credential them via a bunch of assessments that I wrote despite never having any classes on formal assessment design. If you gave us a random sample of the population, I doubt we'd be that great at turning them into Computer Scientists.
- titanomachy 7y ago> assessments I wrote despite never having any classes on formal assessment design. PG had a post here recently on (approximately) that subject. http://www.paulgraham.com/lesson.html http://www.paulgraham.com/lesson.html Very few assessments are well-designed.
- sangnoir 7y ago> My most important role is providing the motivation and structure to go tackle assignments that might be similar to the ones they tackle later on in their careers. Thank you for distilling the essence of what I feel when I hear people say college education is not necessary. I suspect those individuals are no longer college-aged and have matured. Sure, a 19 year old could self-study online instead of going to college - but what 19 year-old has the discipline and motivation to do so consistently for 3-4 years? Granted - I don't believe that college it should cost six figures, but the structure provided is very helpful.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]