Re: PROGRAMMING HOMEWORK HELP!

From: James Rogers (jimmaureenrogers_at_att.net)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 14:02:25 GMT

Michael Mendelsohn <keine.Werbung.1300@michael.mendelsohn.de> wrote in
news:406A93BE.A282F7EA@michael.mendelsohn.de:

> James Rogers schrieb:
>> I am truly surprised that a student does not understand what a
>> deadline means by the time he or she arrives at the university.
>> There should have been very many assignments with deadlines from
>> early in the student's school career.
>
> There i sno workload as heavy as in college in any previous school, at
> least for most of the students bright enough to attend it, in my
> experience.

I agree with you. My experience was that the workload at the
university was much greater than in previous schooling. That is one
reason for the entrance requirements at colleges and universities.
The institution's examination of grades and standardized test
scores is used to provide some level of objective measure of how
well a prospective student is prepared for the rigors of
academia in the college or university.

We could have a long discussion about how well grades and test
scores predict success for college students.

>> What is different about a deadline for a programming exercise?
>
> The difference is that the programming deadline creates a
> disproportionately high workload. Students who can cope with the other
> courses ok get in trouble with this while seeing that some of their
> fellows do take this course like the other courses; they do not
> understand why this should be so and take a heavy blow to their
> self-esteem.

I read this as saying that many students are particularly unprepared
for introductory programming classes. I cannot argue against that.
I do know that several major areas of study really do require special
preparation by students. For instance, a student wishing to study
physics at the university should prepare with courses in calculus,
physics, and chemistry at the high school or preparatory school level.

Technical and scientific courses often have a list of rerequisite
knowledge that is expected before the course is attempted. The
university should clearly state those prerequisites.

> Experience counts a lot, and the introductory programming courses I've
> seen (in 3 different institutions) start out aimed at the inexperienced
> beginner and midway start to orient themselves towards the more
> experienced as if that course was so great as to turn inexperienced
> people into experienced programmers in such a short time. (These
> courses, pitifully, usually aren't).

University courses often progress through their subject matter very
quickly. Introductory courses are not exactly aimed at the
inexperienced. They are aimed at the person with minimal or no
background in the subject matter. No university course will provide
time for significant experience. Rather, they will provide time for
an introduction to concepts and techniques.

When a student graduates from the university with a degree in
computer science, software engineering, or information technology,
that person is *not* an experienced programmer. At best that
person is well grounded in theory. Upon taking a job as a programmer
the recent graduate will be placed at the bottom of the programmer
rankings in his work area. The new employee is expected to gain
experience on the job. In the past many companies would team a new
programmer with a programmer having decades of experience. That older
programmer would be expected to teach the new programmer the processes
and skills needed by an experienced programmer. This practice is not
as common now as it was in the past.

>> Any student who thinks learning is a mechanical exercise satified
>> by spending a proscribed amount of time with a specified curriculum
>> is bound to struggle with understanding.
>
> Any students whose lecturers proclaim that those who did not understand
> his course should have expended more energy on the exercises provided
> furthers this kind of misunderstanding. There are many who do (unless
> you ask them in private).

Lecturers seldom have the time or interest to compensate for lack of
preparation by the student. The unprepared student will need to expend
much more energy than the prepared student to succeed in any course.
The unprepared student should seek tutoring and other forms of additinal
help offered at many universities.

> If you haven't done programming before, it depends on your understanding
> of mathematics (and possibly physics) how alien the task of programming
> appears to you. What your understanding of mathematics is depends a lot
> on the teachers you've had, and (again, in my experience) this quality
> varies: some teach "true" understanding, others limit themselves to
> teaching formulas (which can't be done without some understanding to
> make do, but it's quite a different beast).
>
> So the work you have to do to fit programming into your world view
> (which you _must_, as you say - if you don't, you're totally without
> orientation, a state that has been aptly described by Thomas Stegen)
> depends on how ready this world view is to connect to these concepts.
>
> One can argue that the high schools should provide for this foundation;
> the situation of this probably varies from country to country.

It is also true that higher mathematics, programming, and physics are
often elective courses at the high school level. A university student
who does not take those electives before attempting programming
classes at the university is naturally going to have difficulties.
Decisions have consequences.

>> Athletes only improve their performance through hard exercise which
>> results in sore muscles and fatigue. Similarly, academic improvement
>> only happens when a student works to extend his or her capabilities
>> beyond current comfort levels.
>
> This is a very cynical outlook.
> Were it true, self-taught people would not exist.

Truly self-taught people are very rare. Most "self-taught"
people learn using books and tutorials provided by other people.
The difference between that and a classroom is the lack of a person
lecturing in the front of the room. The self-taught person is learining
from the wisdom contained in documents. The motivations for learning
often still provide stress.

Jim Rogers

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