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from the does-it-count-as-a-foreign-language dept.
Mark Guzdial at ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) writes:
I have three reasons for thinking that learning CS is different than learning other STEM disciplines.
- Our infrastructure for teaching CS is younger, smaller, and weaker;
- We don't realize how hard learning to program is;
- CS is so valuable that it changes the affective components of learning.
The author makes compelling arguments to support the claims, ending with:
We are increasingly finding that the emotional component of learning computing (e.g., motivation, feeling of belonging, self-efficacy) is among the most critical variables. When you put more and more students in a high-pressure, competitive setting, and some of whom feel "like" the teacher and some don't, you get emotional complexity that is unlike any other STEM discipline. Not mathematics, any of the sciences, or any of the engineering disciplines are facing growing numbers of majors and non-majors at the same time. That makes learning CS different and harder.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday January 11 2018, @01:32PM (1 child)
'Dull'? This is a petri-dish example of the sort of thinking that makes other engineering fields view 'software engineering' as a bad joke.
'Engineering' isn't about making sure the engineers find their solutions to be aesthetically pleasing. It's about rigorously getting the job done. Is this news to you?
Fortunately, at least a small number of software professionals really do understand this:
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 11 2018, @10:18PM
Nobody said it should be difficult to understand or undocumented. Creativity and mindfulness are part of writing clean code. [medium.com]