Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!dykimber
From: dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: How do teach programming?
Message-ID: <5666@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 21 Jan 89 03:24:00 GMT
References: <1093@infbs.UUCP> <5532@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <576@mccc.UUCP>
Reply-To: dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 35

In article <576@mccc.UUCP> pjh@mccc.UUCP (Pete Holsberg) writes:
>Dan,
>	Would you cite some of the literature on "how to teach
>programming", please?  Thanks,

Okay.  First, a few disclaimers.  I haven't done a heck of a lot of reading in
this area.  I'm much more interested in how computers can be used in
education than in how to teach programming.  Also, this is going to be off
the top of my head, and not in any standard format.  Lastly, I'm just a
lowly undergrad, I haven't devoted my life to studying education (as of
the moment), so I'm probably missing some seriously important refs.  That's
life.  Oh, and also, most of the stuff I've read hasn't had much to do with
teaching advanced computer programming concepts.  Typical studies involve
teaching LISP or Logo to computer novices.  Okay, in no particular format or
order:
    o  Seymour Papert's "Mindstorms" - not specifically about just teaching
       computer programming, but that's part of the deal.  full of Papert's
       musings on educational philosophy.  not much in the way of legit data,
    o  Roy Pea and Karen Sheingold's "Mirrors of Minds..." - some good papers,
       i've only read some of them.
    o  Journal of Educational Psychology - occasional articles on teaching
       computer programming.  lots of empirical studies.  a good journal
       to check because it covers a lot of what gets discussed in this group
    o  Journal of Educational Computing Research - hope i got the name right.
       a pretty new journal, most of the studies are on teaching programming.
       i can't really vouch for the quality, but the topic is dead on.
Okay, well this is random enough.  Depending on what you're interested in,
there are lots of books and journals out there.  There's been lots of work in
intelligent tutoring systems for programming, for instance, and plenty of
interesting papers on using computers in education not necessarily to teach
programming.  Hope this doesn't throw you too far off the track.  And I hope
nobody minds my posting this - last time i tried mailing refs, but i got a
lot of requests.

                                                    -Dan