Ten quick tips for delivering programming lessons.

Greg Wilson,Francis Ouellette

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007433

Abstract

Teaching well is a craft like any other, and success often comes from an accumulation of small improvements rather than from any single large change. This paper describes 10 practices you can use when teaching programming (and other subjects). All are easy to adopt and have proven their value in institutional classrooms, intensive workshops, and other settings.

Highlights

Teaching well is a craft like any other, and success often comes from an accumulation of small improvements rather than from any single large change
Instructors always want to get through more material than time allows, so we often teach at the speed at which we can talk rather than the speed at which people can learn
Fifty years ago, when being able to summarize a speech or take minutes in a meeting was considered an essential white-collar skill, it was common for high school teachers to require students to hand in their notes for grading. This practice has fallen out of fashion, even though research shows that taking notes improves learning because it forces learners to organize and reflect on information as it’s coming in, which in turn increases the likelihood that they will transfer it to long-term memory [16, 17]

Summary

Introduction

Teaching well is a craft like any other, and success often comes from an accumulation of small improvements rather than from any single large change. Active teaching is more effective: people learn more when instructors dynamically adjust their teaching based on real-time feedback from their learners, e.g., by providing an alternative explanation of a concept that the class has found difficult or by changing direction to incorporate a question that reveals an unexpected learner interest. Instructors always want to get through more material than time allows, so we often teach at the speed at which we can talk rather than the speed at which people can learn.

Results

Conclusion