How to Teach Programming - and Other Things

Explore the history and didactics of programming education in this thought-provoking conference talk from Strange Loop. Delve into the debate between exploratory learning and rote memorization in teaching programming, drawing parallels with mathematics and language education. Examine the speaker's research on misconceptions and code phonology as potential tools for more effective programming instruction. Gain insights into various teaching methodologies, from Papert's LOGO to modern approaches, and consider the role of practice, cognitive load, and motivation in skill development. Reflect on the importance of evidence-based teaching strategies and the potential benefits of structured learning in programming education.

Intro
Everyone should learn programming
My PhD research
A textual programming language
We are already programming
They were programming in spreadsheets
They were sort of fine
Not real programming
Turing machine
People remained unconvinced
Thats just normal
This is what it took
Youre not a runner
Its also missing
This will be terrible
CSS is a programming language
Back to 2013
Teaching on Saturdays
How did I learn programming
Books with basic listings
Books with computer programs
The absence of a teacher
A recent Stack Overflow survey
Books for kids
Mistakes
A book for kids
Break the rules
Python
It didnt really work
It was really very hard
I was a qualified teacher
I was a professional teacher
I didnt know anything about teaching
The Oxford Handbook of Reading
We know nothing
Oxford Handbook of Reading
Mandatory Audience Participation
Reading Experiment
Phonics vs Whole Language
Math Wars
Seymour Papert
Practice
Controversy
Shortterm memory
Chunking
Cognitive Load
Syntax
The paper
The three groups
Assessments
Haters
Its not fun
Motivation leads to skill
Summary
Dont be these people
Survey
Outro