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Points for Debate


  • what do we consider “programming” to be?
    • coding?
    • whole life cycle?
  • should we teach activities that require skills not yet developed?
    • higher cognitive skills generally come later
  • is it reasonable to expect high cognitive skills in introductory courses?
    • lower cognitive skills need time to entrench
  • is mathematical content really so hard?
    • mathematicians teach entry-level courses e.g. in proof by induction
    • “programming” in broadest sense is hard


Programming Early Considered Harmful SIGCSE 2001 23 March, Charlotte, NC

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