Research on teaching Python vs. other languages?
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing? --Ned.
On 27/10/15 20:02, Ned Batchelder wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
--Ned. _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Not wishing to blow my own trumpet here... but I wrote "Python in Education" (a free download from O'Reilly) for precisely a moment like this! http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/python-in-education.csp It's not research, more a manifesto. It's not very long and shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes to read cover-to-cover. Happy to answer questions. N.
Hello Nicholas, Thanku for great book. :) Cheers, Harsh Dattani On Wed, Oct 28, 2015, 1:34 AM Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll@ntoll.org> wrote:
On 27/10/15 20:02, Ned Batchelder wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
--Ned. _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Not wishing to blow my own trumpet here... but I wrote "Python in Education" (a free download from O'Reilly) for precisely a moment like this!
http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/python-in-education.csp
It's not research, more a manifesto. It's not very long and shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes to read cover-to-cover.
Happy to answer questions.
N.
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Hi Ned, Philip Guo prof of CS at U of Rochester wrote this over the popularity of Python as an intro language. http://m.cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/176450-python-is-now-the-most-popular-... On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 1:07 PM Harsh Dattani <dattaniharsh12@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Nicholas,
Thanku for great book. :)
Cheers, Harsh Dattani
On Wed, Oct 28, 2015, 1:34 AM Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll@ntoll.org> wrote:
On 27/10/15 20:02, Ned Batchelder wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
--Ned. _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Not wishing to blow my own trumpet here... but I wrote "Python in Education" (a free download from O'Reilly) for precisely a moment like this!
http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/python-in-education.csp
It's not research, more a manifesto. It's not very long and shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes to read cover-to-cover.
Happy to answer questions.
N.
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Hello Ned, You should choose language based on your research. Different programming language solves different problems but they lack at some point so study for both and then take decision. Thanks & Regards Hitul Mistry M. +91 9974729554 On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 1:32 AM, Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
--Ned. _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
Hi, I was going to say the same thing as Don above, about Python recently becoming the most popular choice or some such, in (top?) US Univs (forget the exact details, but Don's link should have it.) There was a thread on HN about it a while ago too. Using hn.algolia.com with appropriate parameters and keywords should find the thread, it usually works well for me. Also, the Indian CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) was supposed to have introduced Python as a subject or a/the programming language, a year or so ago.. Haven't followed up news after that. - Vasudev --- Vasudev Ram - Dancing Bison Enterprises Fellow at the Python Software Foundation Independent software consultant and trainer - Python, C, Linux, databases, open source About: http://jugad2.blogspot.in/p/about-vasudev-ram.html LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vasudevram ActiveState Code recipes: https://code.activestate.com/recipes/users/4173351 On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 1:43 AM, Hitul Mistry <mistryhitul007@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Ned,
You should choose language based on your research. Different programming language solves different problems but they lack at some point so study for both and then take decision.
Thanks & Regards Hitul Mistry M. +91 9974729554
On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 1:32 AM, Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
--Ned. _______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
_______________________________________________ PSF-Community mailing list PSF-Community@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/psf-community
On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 04:02:04PM -0400, Ned Batchelder wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
Hi Ned, in addition to the other great suggestions, please see this research work: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1734437 showing """ Python versus C++ CS1 preparation was not a predictor of performance in any course. We conclude again that in our C++ based curriculum changing CS1 to Python had no negative impact on student performance and did not require any significant change in those subsequent courses. """ Bill and Rich have a substantial body of knowledge in this area and I'd be happy to introduce you to them; they're former colleagues at Michigan State and quite nice people! I think I can say that the chief advantage they got out of switching to Python at Michigan State was in the engagement of non-CS majors in the course. An awful lot of people found the course much more useful to their research and work when it was taught in Python than when it was taught in C++, which helped with attendance and follow-through in the courses. cheers, --titus -- C. Titus Brown, ctbrown@ucdavis.edu
On 28 October 2015 at 06:02, Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
A friend at a CS department is advocating to switch to Python as the teaching language rather than Java. Some of his peers would like some evidence (research?) that Python is better-suited as a first language. Anyone have links to such a thing?
Late to the discussion, but the article Greg Wilson references here is worth a look: http://neverworkintheory.org/2014/01/29/stefik-siebert-syntax.html The interesting aspect of that one is that it provides some peer-reviewed research suggesting that Python and Ruby are genuinely easier to learn than Java and Perl, rather than that just being a subjective impression. Regards, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia
participants (8)
-
C. Titus Brown -
Don Sheu -
Harsh Dattani -
Hitul Mistry -
Ned Batchelder -
Nicholas H.Tollervey -
Nick Coghlan -
Vasudev Ram