Thanks Laura (and everyone else who posted comments). All useful info. I think I've got enough to go on for the next release I make of the book.
J Laura Creighton wrote: > In a message of Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:09:47 EST, Jay Bloodworth writes: > >> On Sat, 2007-11-10 at 19:04 -0600, Michael Tobis wrote: >> >>> I agree that the concept of a "variable" is deeply unpythonic in most c >>> >> ontexts. >> >> But it's pretty darn programmatic. I think overemphasizing python idiom >> and ontology in a first programming course is a mistake. Variables, >> subroutines, loops, conditionals - these are a few of my favorite >> things. >> >> I've never really taught programming, but my intuition, based on ten >> years experience teaching algebra and prealgebra to middle school >> students, is that they will "get" the idea of variables with any >> reasonable explanation: boxes, labels, names, whatever. Certainly, many >> will have difficulty understanding scoping, reference vs. value, deep >> vs. shallow copies, etc., but these are concepts that are fundamentally >> more subtle and challenging, and most adults must work to wrap their >> heads around them as well. >> >> I'm going to go a little further out on a limb here and offer a theory >> and a prediction to test it, that I'd appreciate it if anyone who has >> taught programming to 10-15 year old can respond to: Regardless of how >> they are taught, kids first mental model of a variable is something >> like: "a value the program needs to change". Hence they will be >> uncomfortable and may resist understanding when a variable is used to >> name a constant value. >> >> jay >> > > Your limb is creaking :-) > Younger ones are happy with the notion that 'a variable is a handle'. > As in 'an avatar for posting to a fora is a handle'. > At least the 12-13 year olds I taught were. And constants was easy, > it was the opposite, that they could vary that confused them. But > that may say more about how I presented the idea than anything > about what is easier for 12 year olds to grasp. I think its all > how I taught them. We're making online text based games. Everybody > know what an avatar is. > > Laura > > _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
