[Edu-sig] Brainstorming and a neat link

[Roman Suzi]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Kevin & Masako Ollivier wrote:

Hi!

> Hello everyone,
 
> 1) Are there any "best practices" about how to teach programming? What
> works, and what doesn't?

I'd like to have an answer to it!

My personal experience is that it doesn't matter how to teach programming,
what to use (a programming calculator or a supercomputer), when to teach
(at what grade from 6 to ...), etc.

What really does matter is: your student must be highly motivated to
learn! 

If the motivation remains for some time (from 3-12 months, this differs
for different people), s/he will suddenly realise that s/he is able to
program. After this, the teacher has to treat such person differently:
instead of feeding her/his motivation, he must supply good problems to
empower student's intellectual muscles, and, at the same time, try to make
student's skills/knowledge as systematic as possible. 


Sincerely yours, Roman A.Suzi
-- 
 - Petrozavodsk - Karelia - Russia - mailto:rnd@onego.ru -