Re: Teaching programming

Sam Hogan (hogansp@mrnet.com)
Tue, 23 Jul 1996 00:00:08 EDT

The answer is yes - we should be teaching programming in our schools.
It is an excellent vehicle for teaching problem solving and developing
critical thinking skills. And yes, it is a real-life vocation, but more
importantly it gives the student a chance to look behind that wall of
software that they are being exposed to. Unfortunately, most students think
they are going to create computer games all year long - it is the students
who think programming is a neat thing to do.
We teach programming as part of a Computer Science curriculum and we are
seeing an ever increasing interest in the subject. Thus the choice of
programming language is very important. We use Pascal as our teaching
language and use examples from Assembler, BASIC, FORTRAN, C, PL/1, and
COBOL for comparison.

Sam Hogan
hogansp@mrnet.com

>Barry Hussey wrote:
>> I believe that in the age group you are dealing with, that the HTML
>>would serve well as a beginners language. It will teach the basic
>>theory of programming (no pun intended).

Fred Schouten <fschoute@mail.isbe.state.il.us> replied:
>I'm having a real problem with this thread. We seem to be concentrating on
>what programming language to teach in school (even starting in 2nd grade),
>but we have spent little time discussing whether to teach programming at
>all and for what reason.
>
>What is the outcome of such instruction? Is programming being taught in
>order to help students acquire problem-solving skills? To help them with
>critical thinking skills? Or is it being taught as a vocational course? Or
>-- perhaps -- it is being taught becaus ethe teacher thinks it is a "neat"
>thing to do?
>
>Before I would consider allowing programming to be taught in my school
>system, I would want these basic (pun intended) questions answered!

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Sam Hogan Computer Science Teacher/Information Systems
hogansp@mrnet.com Menominee High School/2101 18th St/Menominee/MI/49858
/ hogans@menominee.k12.mi.us /(906) 863-7814
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