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Most children learn language. Most people can learn programming. Not all children grow up to be eloquent masters of the oratory arts. Not all that learn to prog

Most children learn language. Most people can learn programming. Not all children grow up to be eloquent masters of the oratory arts. Not all that learn to program will be able to develop complex applications. But for basic programming, the students will have to commit, just like children do. Their questions that you quote : * What is a function/method? * What is meant by return? * What is an array? What is an index? * Why looping is so hard to understand? * What is the meaning of public static void main() I suggest teaching them the basics of the scientific method. They should do their own research, even through a basic web-search, and ask a specific follow-up question. Every one of these questions shows that they did not do a basic web-search. It's ok if they want to learn like children. Children ask lots of questions. But it will take more time, just like it does for children. Time I do not give for free in my teaching scenarios, except kids under 10 y.o. Meaning, I expect the older individuals to show they did their homework first. A question I would spend time answering, for contrast: "I have read the chapter on arrays and have done exercises from the following www resource. What I don't understand in a specific case is this..."

rukshn 6y ago
Yes I totally understand, it’s frustrating and sometimes infuriating when they don’t look up even the basic things on the internet But even when I send them some references they reply saying even they read it they could not understand what it meant. Which lead me back to explaining them from the beginning
- NotPavlovsDog 6y ago
  Well, you have three options forward. Either treat them like children and just explain on a loop, or you demand that they follow the basic process of adult reasoning and learning. The last option is abandonment, teacher/instructor burnout is a real thing. And "I don't understand" should not be acceptable. Let them write out what they did and what exactly they don't understand. For example: To find out more about main, I searched for "Java main", and got the following: "All Java programs must have an entry point, which is always the main() method. Whenever the program is called, it automatically executes the main() method first. " Yet when I look at this code here, line ref/ code snippet, I don't understand why it doesn't have a main.... I don't have any natural talent for programming nor math, and cried for 2 weeks straight when I was going through my first programming book, my brain literally hurt. I just ground that book. Taking a book and typing out all the exercises, muscle memory. You work your ass off for 10 years, and suddenly you get lucky.

rukshn 6y ago

Yes I totally understand, it’s frustrating and sometimes infuriating when they don’t look up even the basic things on the internet But even when I send them some references they reply saying even they read it they could not understand what it meant. Which lead me back to explaining them from the beginning

NotPavlovsDog 6y ago
Well, you have three options forward. Either treat them like children and just explain on a loop, or you demand that they follow the basic process of adult reasoning and learning. The last option is abandonment, teacher/instructor burnout is a real thing. And "I don't understand" should not be acceptable. Let them write out what they did and what exactly they don't understand. For example: To find out more about main, I searched for "Java main", and got the following: "All Java programs must have an entry point, which is always the main() method. Whenever the program is called, it automatically executes the main() method first. " Yet when I look at this code here, line ref/ code snippet, I don't understand why it doesn't have a main.... I don't have any natural talent for programming nor math, and cried for 2 weeks straight when I was going through my first programming book, my brain literally hurt. I just ground that book. Taking a book and typing out all the exercises, muscle memory. You work your ass off for 10 years, and suddenly you get lucky.