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I think teaching programming is pretty easy as long as you have mindset. The first and most important point is to only teach people that want to be taught. Don

I think teaching programming is pretty easy as long as you have mindset. The first and most important point is to only teach people that want to be taught. Don't try to shove it to them, it just doesn't work. I am teaching my kids programming and so I spent a lot of time thinking about it. Nobody taught me programming. I just had access to things I could play with and it was fun to make them do stuff. I learned because it was fun. If somebody forced me to do things their way it would likely not be fun. Another part I have learned is to solve problems on my own. It is not very instructive to have teacher tell you solution to every problem after some time. I think solving problems on your own is core part of knowing how to program and so having somebody you can constantly lean on deprives you of chance to develop this important ability. So in the end teaching my kids programming is basically making sure they have access to a good environment where they can do stuff that is fun. I answer questions if they have any and react when I see them bored or stuck for too long, but that's about it. Sometimes I try to discuss a topic to see what kind of mental model they have and maybe I point something or show them a counterexample or a trick to steer them into better mental model. I am not religious, but God bless Minecraft:)

Jtsummers 5y ago
> So in the end teaching my kids programming is basically making sure they have access to a good environment where they can do stuff that is fun. I answer questions if they have any and react when I see them bored or stuck for too long, but that's about it. That's how the speaker describes her initial approach and then later goes into the research on why it's not the most effective. In particular, the relative novelty of computer programming means we haven't had much time to develop a pedagogy, particularly a pedagogy for kids [0]. And even the methods that we have developed haven't been fully explored, but what research there is offers ideas for other ways to approach the education that yield better results than just letting them explore on their own (though, like the speaker, that's how I did it circa 1990 as an 8-year-old). [0] I recently learned that the root of pedagogy (makes sense, just never stopped to think about it) has the term relate specific to the teaching of kids. There's a related term andragogy which is for the teaching of adults. This does make my sentence a bit silly, but the distinction is not typically made in English. Not sure about other languages.
- lmilcin 5y ago
  It may not be the most efficient way, but I find that it is less likely to permanently discourage kids from programming. And they have a lot of time to learn. I started learning programming in my late teens, before that there weren't even any computers around.
  - Alekhine 5y ago
    I started around the end of my teens. And it was a conscious decision, I didn't fall into it. Thankfully, I found that I enjoyed it.

Jtsummers 5y ago

> So in the end teaching my kids programming is basically making sure they have access to a good environment where they can do stuff that is fun. I answer questions if they have any and react when I see them bored or stuck for too long, but that's about it. That's how the speaker describes her initial approach and then later goes into the research on why it's not the most effective. In particular, the relative novelty of computer programming means we haven't had much time to develop a pedagogy, particularly a pedagogy for kids [0]. And even the methods that we have developed haven't been fully explored, but what research there is offers ideas for other ways to approach the education that yield better results than just letting them explore on their own (though, like the speaker, that's how I did it circa 1990 as an 8-year-old). [0] I recently learned that the root of pedagogy (makes sense, just never stopped to think about it) has the term relate specific to the teaching of kids. There's a related term andragogy which is for the teaching of adults. This does make my sentence a bit silly, but the distinction is not typically made in English. Not sure about other languages.

lmilcin 5y ago
It may not be the most efficient way, but I find that it is less likely to permanently discourage kids from programming. And they have a lot of time to learn. I started learning programming in my late teens, before that there weren't even any computers around.
- Alekhine 5y ago
  I started around the end of my teens. And it was a conscious decision, I didn't fall into it. Thankfully, I found that I enjoyed it.