I was in Denmark last week, teaching software carpentry. The students were very enthusiastic, but they had very different starting points, which made teaching harder.
For a complete beginner’s to programming course, I typically rely heavily on the Python Tutor created by Philip Guo, which is an excellent tool. Then, my goal is to get them to understand names, objects, and the flow of control.
I don’t use the term variable when discussing Python as I don’t think it’s a very good concept. C has variables, which work like little boxes you put values in. If you’re thinking of little boxes in Python, things get confusing. If you try to think of little boxes plus pointers (or references), it’s still not a very good map of what Python is actually doing.
For more intermediate students (the kind that has used one programming language), I typically still go through this closely. I find that many still have major faults in their mental model of how names and objects work. However, for these intermediate students have, this can go much faster [1]. If it’s the first time they are even seeing the idea of writing code, then it naturally needs to be slow.
Last week, because the class was so mixed, it was probably too slow for some and too fast for others.
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A bit of Danish weirdness:
A sausage display at a local pub
| [1] | I suppose if students knew Haskell quite well but no imperative programming, this may no longer apply, but teaching Python to Haskell programmers is not a situation I have been in. |
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