The "loop and a half"
Christian Gollwitzer
auriocus at gmx.de
Wed Oct 4 16:29:20 EDT 2017
Am 04.10.17 um 14:34 schrieb Ben Bacarisse:
> ram at zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:
>
>> Steve D'Aprano <steve+python at pearwood.info> writes:
>>> For-each loops are MUCH easier to understand, and should be taught first.
>>
>> I prefer a bottom-up approach.
>>
>> For loops are based on iterators.
>>
>> So, "bottom-up" in this case means: iterators should be
>> taught before for-loops.
>>
>> But iterators are too abstract to be taught very early.
>
> I think this may be a problem with your style. From your other
> postings, I think you value precision and exactness over broad
> understanding, and maybe you teach like that.
To understand Stefan's way of teaching, take a look at his other
courses, for example the C++ course:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ram/pub/pub_jf47ht81Ht/c++-kurs
He defends the opinion that you learn a programming language best by
studying syntax diagrams. He even writes in his FAQ about the language
courses:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~ram/pub/pub_jf47ht81Ht/faq_programmieren
"Neuere Forschungen haben gezeigt, daß es erfolgreicher ist, formale
Systeme (wie Programmiersprachen oder Mathematik) zu unterrichten, wenn
dabei kein künstlicher „Praxisbezug“ durch “real-world examples”
(Beispiele aus dem „wahren Leben“) hergestellt wird!"
which means
"Recent research results show that it is more successful, to teach
formal systems (like programming language or maths), if no artificial
practical use-case is demonstrated by "real-world examples" with a
reference: "They said students who were taught abstract math concepts
fared better in experiments than those taught with real-world examples,
such as story problems.
Adding extraneous details makes it hard for students to extract the
basic mathematical concepts and apply them to new problems, they said.
"We're really making it difficult for students because we are
distracting them from the underlying math," said Jennifer Kaminski, a
research scientist at Ohio State University, whose study appears in the
journal Science.Reuters, 25. April 2008"
Christian
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