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Looking at worked examples leveled up my coding ability dramatically. You learn twice as fast with half the stress of someone who is trying to solve a problem t

Looking at worked examples leveled up my coding ability dramatically. You learn twice as fast with half the stress of someone who is trying to solve a problem they don’t have the tools for. I’m not sure why it’s so different than tutorials, where the opposite happens. Everyone just looks at the answers and gets nowhere. Maybe it’s something about understanding or caring. There’s a huge difference in learning when you get information that you want to know, that you need to know, versus you hope you’ll have a use for it some time later.

itsgrimetime 5y ago
I’m not super familiar with what “worked examples” are exactly - do you have any you could share? I also find learning via tutorials inefficient.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  The example in the article is from math. Something like presenting what you would expect the learner to do, the actual process: 3x ---- = 12 2 3x = 24 x = 8 Have the learner (and teachers of course do this in classrooms) walk through that example and study it (along with others). In the context of programming, this would be to show an existing program and have the learner read it and/or retype it with the code present (how many of us self-taught coders figured it out in the pre-Web times). This contrasts with directing the learner to solve that initial equation, or to write a particular program. The utility (per this article and quickly tracking down some more material on it) is more for the first time learners, and as they learn more they'll end up getting more value from working problems out themselves (versus studying more worked examples).
datameta 5y ago
I find learning by doing is most effective of all
- bluechair 5y ago
  The worked example effect is exactly that: learning by doing.
  - datameta 5y ago
    At least for me, only watching something done step by step does not guarantee a full grasp - or least I am not sure beyond any doubt that I understand, until I try myself. If I watch a tutorial, I am doing the same thing alongside it. This of course varies with the complexity of the task. How to put together a 3d printer? Yeah watching a video of it done will give my a full grasp of what I need to do without practicing. How to implement a support vector machine while understanding the underlying math? It's not sufficient to see it done. Similarly seeing something written out is not the same as writing it (in terms of the processing going on in our brain)
inglor_cz 5y ago
True, and that is what is great about StackOverflow etc. My typical problem when confronted with an entirely new class of tasks or an entirely new programming language is "where the hell do I even start".

itsgrimetime 5y ago

I’m not super familiar with what “worked examples” are exactly - do you have any you could share? I also find learning via tutorials inefficient.

Jtsummers 5y ago
The example in the article is from math. Something like presenting what you would expect the learner to do, the actual process: 3x ---- = 12 2 3x = 24 x = 8 Have the learner (and teachers of course do this in classrooms) walk through that example and study it (along with others). In the context of programming, this would be to show an existing program and have the learner read it and/or retype it with the code present (how many of us self-taught coders figured it out in the pre-Web times). This contrasts with directing the learner to solve that initial equation, or to write a particular program. The utility (per this article and quickly tracking down some more material on it) is more for the first time learners, and as they learn more they'll end up getting more value from working problems out themselves (versus studying more worked examples).

datameta 5y ago

I find learning by doing is most effective of all

bluechair 5y ago
The worked example effect is exactly that: learning by doing.
- datameta 5y ago
  At least for me, only watching something done step by step does not guarantee a full grasp - or least I am not sure beyond any doubt that I understand, until I try myself. If I watch a tutorial, I am doing the same thing alongside it. This of course varies with the complexity of the task. How to put together a 3d printer? Yeah watching a video of it done will give my a full grasp of what I need to do without practicing. How to implement a support vector machine while understanding the underlying math? It's not sufficient to see it done. Similarly seeing something written out is not the same as writing it (in terms of the processing going on in our brain)

inglor_cz 5y ago

True, and that is what is great about StackOverflow etc. My typical problem when confronted with an entirely new class of tasks or an entirely new programming language is "where the hell do I even start".