Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: David Lamb Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Teaching kids to program (in Java) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:47:03 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 15 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:47:16 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="w5ewJxsRgiUymlDHZo0DiA"; logging-data="29726"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/o0Gfrh4D1zPzWl1xCgAC/" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:11.0) Gecko/20120312 Thunderbird/11.0 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:QE7+DyqeOPFuZLxygPISrog5YZA= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:13497 On 12/04/2012 7:36 AM, Roedy Green wrote: > I presented everything as a puzzle to be solved, rather than methods > to be memorised. They were NOT supposed to understand. I just gave > hints. They have to figure it out. For example the opening exercise > was to figure out what each of the keys on the keyboard did. They > figured it all out far faster than I could have explained it to them, > and without the tedium. BTW, this is now standard educational theory even for university students; our Centre for Teaching and Learning is big on problem-centred learning, among many other ways of engaging students. The trouble for the OP is that Roedy doesn't have a textbook to point you at, nor do I. Since he's a freelance, I suppose you could hire him! :)